FOOT-NOTES  TO  EVOLUTION 


'A  sacred  Kinship  I  would  not  forego 
Binds  me  to  all  that  breathes." 

BOYKSEN 


Some  chipmunks  of  California,  showing  distinct  species 

produced  through  isolation. 
From  nature,  by  William  Sacketon  Atkinson. 


FOOT-NOTES  TO  EVOLUTION 

A  SERIES  OF  POPULAR  ADDRESSES  ON 
THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LIFE 


BY 

DAVID  STARR  JORDAN,  PH.  D. 

PRESIDENT    OF    LELAND    STANFORD  JUNIOR    UNIVERSITY 


WITH    SUPPLEMENTARY    ESSAYS    BY 
EDWIN  GRANT  CONKLIN,  PH.  D. 

PROFESSOR  OF  COMPARATIVE  EMBRYOLOGY 
IN  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

. FRANK   MACE   McFARLAND,   PH.  D. 

ASSOCIATE  PROFESSOR  OF  HISTOLOGY 
IN  LELAND  STANFORD   JUNIOR  UNIVERSITY 

JAMES   PERRIN  SMITH,   PH.  D. 

PROFESSOR  OF  PALEONTOLOGY  IN 

TANFORD   JUNIOR  UNIVERSITY 


NEW   YORK 

D.    APPLETON   AND   COMPANY 
1898 


COPYRIGHT,  1898, 
Bv  DAVID  STARR  JORDAN. 


TO 

TIMOTHY   HOPKINS, 

OF  MENLO    PARK,    CALIFORNIA, 
FOUNDER   OF  THE   SEASIDE   LABORATORY   OF   BIOLOGY 


IN    RECOGNITION    OF    HIS    FRIENDLY    AID 
TO    SCIENTIFIC    INVESTIGATION. 


PREFATORY   NOTE. 


THE  present  volume  is  made  up  of  popular  essays  or 
addresses  on  the  general  subject  of  Organic  Evolution. 
These  were  originally  given  as  oral  lectures  before 
University  Extension  societies  in  California,  having 
been  condensed  and  written  out  in  their  present  form 
after  delivery.  Three  of  these  papers  have  already 
appeared  in  Appletons'  Popular  Science  Monthly,  and 
three  in  The  Arena.  To  the  editors  of  these  periodicals 
I  am  indebted  for  the  privilege  of  reprinting  them. 

Besides  the  twelve  essays  of  my  own,  it  is  my  good 
fortune  to  enhance  the  value  of  the  volume  by  the  in- 
sertion of  three  papers  of  special  importance,  setting 
forth  the  present  state  of  knowledge  concerning  the 
method  of  evolution  and  the  method  of  heredity.  The 
first  of  these,  on  the  Factors  of  Organic  Evolution  as 
displayed  in  the  Process  of  Development,  is  by  Professor 
Edwin  Grant  Conklin,  of  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania ;  the  second,  on  the  Physical  Basis  of  Heredity, 
is  by  Professor  Frank  Mace  McFarland,  of  Leland  Stan- 
ford Jr.  University  ;  the  third,  on  the  Testimony  from 
Paleontology,  is  by  Professor  James  Perrin  Smith,  of 

vii 


yiii  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

Leland  Stanford  Jr.  University.  The  essay  of  Professor 
Conklin  was  read  before  the  American  Philosophical  So- 
ciety. The  others  are  here  presented  for  the  first  time. 
I  may  add  that  the  present  volume  is  not  intended 
as  a  text-book  in  Evolution,  although  most  phases  of 
organic  development  are  in  one  way  or  another  touched 
upon,  some  of  them,  however,  most  briefly.  The  treat- 
ment of  different  topics  is  necessarily  unequal.  The 
time  is  long  past  when  any  one  man  can  master  what  is 
known  in  any  science,  least  of  all  the  universal  science 
of  life.  In  the  supplementary  essays  I  have  asked  my 
scientific  friends  to  do  for  this  volume  certain  work 
which  I  could  not  do  except  by  the  unsatisfactory 

method  of  compilation. 

DAVID  STARR  JORDAN. 

PALO  ALTO,  CALIFORNIA,  January  ig,  1898. 


ANALYSIS   OF   CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

I. — THE  KINSHIP  OF  LIFE I 

What  is  the  cause  of  variety  in  life  ?  What  is  a  species  ? 
The  number  of  species.  The  unity  of  type.  Unity  in 
variety.  The  meaning  of  homology.  The  origin  of  va- 
riety and  the  origin  of  homology.  The  origin  of  life  un- 
known. The  answer  of  Linnaeus.  The  answer  of  Cuvier. 
The  answer  of  Lamarck.  The  answer  of  Agassiz.  What 
is  special  creation  ?  All  life  from  life.  Uncertain  bound- 
aries of  species.  The  species  of  fishes  of  North  Amer- 
ica. The  species  of  the  Galapagos.  Do  species  change 
with  space  ?  The  species  of  South  American  edentates. 
Do  species  change  with  time?  Darwin's  answer.  Dar- 
win's method.  The  origin  of  species.  The  Darwinian 
theory.  Artificial  selection.  Natural  selection.  The 
struggle  for  existence.  Relation  of  bees  to  clover.  Re- 
lation of  cats  to  England's  greatness.  The  equilibrium 
of  Nature.  More  organisms  born  than  can  mature. 
How  the  hare  becomes  white.  How  selection  becomes 
adaptation.  Acceleration  of  development.  How  bisex- 
ual parentage  brings  variety.  "  Vom  Vater  hab'  ich  die 
Statur."  The  value  of  death.  The  saving  of  time.  Al- 
truism and  its  struggle  for  existence.  Every  fact  has  a 
meaning.  Geographical  distribution.  Survival  of  the 
existing.  Geological  distribution.  Epoch-making  events. 
Change  not  progress.  Vestigial  organs.  The  pineal  eye. 
Origin  of  complex  structures.  The  individual  repeats 
the  history  of  the  race.  Embryology  and  evolution  (John 
Sterling  Kingsley).  Similarity  of  early  stages  in  embry- 
onic life.  The  egg  of  the  mammal.  Embryonic  struc- 

ix 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


tures  in  man.  Gill  slits  in  man.  Objections  to  the  the- 
ory of  descent.  Relation  of  present  heredity  to  past 
environment.  Darwin's  hope.  The  species  of  eel.  The 
reality  of  species.  The  old  idea  of  species  has  passed 
away.  The  acceptance  of  the  theory  of  descent.  The 
philosophy  of  evolution.  Influence  of  theory  of  de- 
scent. Origin  of  man.  Meaning  of  homology.  Decay- 
ing scientific  beliefs.  Darwin's  words.  The  conception 
of  God.  Darwin's  home.  Boyesen  on  evolution. 

II.— EVOLUTION  :  WHAT  IT  is  AND  WHAT  IT  is  NOT    .    54 

What  evolution  is.  The  science  of  organic  evolution  or 
bionomics.  Meaning  of  law.  Soundness  and  solvency 
of  Nature.  The  indifference  of  Nature.  Evolution  as  a 
theory  of  organic  development.  Each  fact  has  a  mean- 
ing. Evolution  as  a  method  of  study.  Evolution  as  a 
system  of  cosmic  philosophy.  Decay  of  formulae.  What 
evolution  is  not.  Man  not  a  developed  monkey.  Not 
progress,  but  adaptation.  •  Humanity  not  the  goal  of  evo- 
lution. Change  by  slow  divergence.  No  innate  tend- 
ency toward  progression.  Spontaneous  generation. 
Evolution  not  a  creed.  Evolution  not  a  religion.  Sci- 
ence its  own  witness. 

III. — THE  ELEMENTS  OF  ORGANIC  EVOLUTION      .       .    75 

Heredity.  Irritability.  Individuality.  Natural  selec- 
tion. Concessions  of  life.  Self-activity.  Altruism.  Iso- 
lation. Nutrition  in  transmission.  Survival  of  the  exist- 
ing. Inheritance  of  acquired  characters.  The  unknown 
factors. 

IV.— THE  FACTORS  OF  EVOLUTION  FROM  THE  STAND- 
POINT OF  EMBRYOLOGY.  By  Professor  Edwin 
Grant  Conklin 100 

Embryology  shows  the  method  of  evolution.  Statement 
of  propositions.  Causes  of  development.  Intrinsic  causes 
dependent  on  nature  of  protoplasm.  Inherited  charac- 
ters predetermined  in  structure  of  germ  cell.  Germinal 


ANALYSIS   OF   CONTENTS. 


XI 


PAGE 

protoplasm  relatively  but  not  absolutely  stable.  Do  ex- 
trinsic factors  affect  germinal  protoplasm  ?  Diminished 
nutrition.  ..  Changes  in  environment.  Use  and  disuse. 
Mechanical  conditions.  Results  of  impact.  Value  of 
direct  experiment.  Return  to  the  position  of  Darwin. 
The  final  word  still  far  distant. 


V. — THE  HEREDITY  OF  RICHARD  ROE     .        .        .        .118 

Formation  of  character.  Hereditary  tendencies.  In- 
heritance of  humanity.  Inheritance  of  race  characters. 
Individual  characters.  The  germ  cell.  Protoplasm. 
Chromatin.  Inequality  of  Nature's  divisions.  Atavism^. 
The  mid-parent.  The  thoroughbred.  Changes  through 
experience.  Inheritance  of  acquired  characters.  Nature 
of  acquired  characters.  Prenatal  influences.  Transmis- 
sion of  impaired  vitality.  Ibsen's  ghosts.  Potentialities 
not  character.  The  higher  heredity.  The  unity  of  the 
ego.  The  ego  a  co-operation.  Fame  not  greatness. 
Counting  one's  ancestors.  Lineage  of  a  little  girl.  All 
Englishmen  of  noble  birth.  Effect  of  primogeniture. 
Origin  of  the  English  character.  Race  types  and  the 
survival  of  the  existing. 

VI. — THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  HEREDITY.    By  Professor 

Frank  Mace  McFarland 147 

The  cell  theory.  The  meaning  of  the  term  "cell."  Uni- 
cellular and  multicellular  organisms.  The  essential 
parts  of  the  cell.  The  protoplasm.  The  nucleus.  Ka- 
ryokinesis.  The  chromosomes.  Division  of  the  centro- 
some.  The  spindle.  Division  of  the  chromosomes. 
Phases  of  cell  division  by  karyokinesis.  Direct  division. 
Somatic  and  reproductive  tissues.  Differentiation  of  so- 
matic and  reproductive  tissues  in  Ascaris.  Reproduction 
in  Protozoa.  Conjugation.  Gradual  differentiation  of 
reproductive  cells.  Reproduction  in  Eudorina.  Repro- 
duction in  Metazoa.  Fundamental  identity  of  the  germ 
cells.  The  egg  cell.  Maturation.  The  sperm  cell. 
Fertilization.  Cleavage.  The  reduction  of  the  chromo- 
somes. Theories  as  to  structure  and  significance  of  the 


xii  FOOT-NOTES  TO  EVOLUTION. 

PAGE 

chromosome.  The  ultimate  vital  units.  Significance  of 
reduction.  Reduction  in  Ascaris.  Reduction  in  Crusta- 
cea. The  chromatin  as  the  bearer  of  hereditary  influence. 
Indirect  evidence.  Direct  experimental  evidence. 

VII. — THE  DISTRIBUTION  OF  SPECIES      .        .        .        .  191 

Illustrations  not  arguments.  Cumulative  evidence. 
The  fauna  of  the  Galapagos.  Island  life.  Effects  of  mi- 
gration on  species.  Effects  of  isolation.  Barriers  to  diffu- 
sion. Holarctic  realm.  Neotropical  realm.  Ethiopian 
realm.  Indian  realm.  Australian  realm.  Anomalies  in 
distribution.  Adaptation  of  animals  to  environment. 
Invasion  of  the  Australian  realm.  Trout  in  Yellowstone 
Park.  Two-Ocean  Pass.  Laws  of  distribution  of  ani- 
mals. Barriers  of  land,  sea,  and  climate.  Interdepend- 
ence of  species.  The  arctic  birch.  Crossing  the  bar- 
riers. The  flying  fish.  Subspecies  or  geographical 
variations.  Doubtful  species.  Darwin's  experience. 
The  shore  larks.  Work  of  Dr.  J.  A.  Allen.  Species  de- 
fined by  missing  links.  Analogy  between  variations  of 
species  and  of  words.  A  fauna  like  a  language.  The 
survival  of  the  existing.  How  species  change  with  time. 
Physiological  isolation. 

VIII.— LATITUDE  AND  VERTEBRAE 221 

Northern  fishes  have  most  vertebrae.  Fewest  vertebrae 
in  shore  fishes  of  the  tropics.  Fewer  vertebrae  indicates 
greater  specialization.  Analogy  of  tropical  waters  to 
cities  of  men.  Origin  of  eels.  Coral  reefs  the  centre  of 
fish  competition.  Cephalization  through  competition. 

IX.— EVOLUTION  OF   FOSSIL   CEPHALOPODA.     By  Pro- 
fessor James  Perrin  Smith          .....  229 

Introduction :  General  evidence  of  paleontology ;  in- 
completeness of  the  record.  Law  of  acceleration  of  de- 
velopment. Nomenclature  of  stages  of  growth.  Paleon- 
togeny  :  General  statement ;  Brachiopoda  ;  Crustacea  ; 
Mollusca  ;  Pelecypoda  ;  Cephalopoda  ;  Method  of  work- 


ANALYSIS   OF   CONTENTS.  xiii 

PAGE 

ing.      Development    of    Glyphioceras .      Development    of 
Schlcenbachia. 

X. — THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  MIND        .     .  >,    ,  ....       .  256 

Mind  the  sum  total  of  psychic  changes.  Mind  not  con- 
sciousness. Function  precedes  structure.  Irritability 
the  basis  of  mind.  The  brain  adequate  for  the  mind. 
The  marvel  of  life.  Activities  of  Protozoa.  Sensation 
related  to  action.  Mind  of  the  plant.  Locomotion  de- 
mands sensation.  Reflex  action.  The  higher  heredity. 
Realities  and*  illusions.  Selections  of  sensations.  Ro- 
bust men  make  history.  Relation  of  the  child  to  the 
environment.  The  sensorium.  Nature  of  instinct.  In- 
stinct of  the  fur  seal.  Nature  of  the  intellect.  Effect  of 
adversity  on  the  intellect.  Intellect  of  the  monkey  peo- 
ple. Intellect  the  choice  of  responses.  Intellect  of  the 
fur  seal.  The  "  Clavier"  theory  of  mind.  Colonial  con- 
sciousness. "  Cogito,  ergo  sum."  Development  of  the 
ego.  The  building  of  the  self.  Sensation  without  action. 
Impulse  and  action.  Degeneration.  Power  of  attention. 
Defects  in  mental  operation.  Phenomena  of  hysteria. 
Effect  of  drugs.  The  mind  of  nations. 

XL— DEGENERATION    .       .       .       .       .       .       .       .277 

Decline  in  range  of  activities.  Quiescent  animals. 
Tunicates.  Parasitic  animals.  Sacculina.  Animal  pau- 
perism homologous  with  human  pauperism.  Law  of 
compensation.  Degeneration  of  senility.  Race  de- 
generation. Lineage  of  degeneracy  short.  Withered 
branches.  Degeneration  through  charity.  The  cretins 
of  Aosta.  Degeneration  in  isolation.  The  Jukes.  The 
poor  whites.  Degeneration  in  slavery.  Degeneration 
in  the  slums.  Degeneration  in  the  tropics.  Degenera- 
tion in  luxury.  Mental  dyspepsia.  The  higher  foolish- 
ness. Nordau  on  degeneration.  The  mattoid.  The 
normal  man.  Disease  of  the  nerves  not  genius.  De- 
cadence for  mercantile  purposes.  Causes  of  decadence. 
The  despondency  of  Europe.  The  wholesome  world. 
Degeneration  under  institutions.  Mental  pauperism. 
Spiritual  pauperism. 


xiv  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

PAGE 

XII.— HEREDITARY  INEFFICIENCY     .        .       .        .        .  299 

The  art  of  living.  Mutual  help  preserves  the  incapa- 
ble. The  easy  world.  Poverty  not  pauperism.  Degen- 
eration of  the  inactive.  The  tribe  of  Ishmael.  Paupers 
as  parasites.  Pauperism  a  factor  in  government.  Cor- 
ruption fund  of  public  charity.  Foreign  immigration. 
Taking  away  the  "  freedom  which  is  thraldom  to  sin." 

XIII.— THE  WOMAN  OF  EVOLUTION  AND  THE  WOMAN 

OF  PESSIMISM        .       .  •  .    •       •        •  312 

Primary  meaning  of  sex.  Primal  equality  of  sexes. 
Specialization  of  germ  cells.  Specialization  of  the  em- 
bryo. Maternity  and  companionship.  Woman  not  un- 
developed man.  The  altruism  of  parenthood.  The 
philosophy  of  pessimism.  The  philosophy  of  evolution. 
Schopenhauer's  essay  on  woman.  Woman  a  modified 
man.  Inefficiency  of  woman.  Beauty  of  young  girls. 
Beauty  as  a  weapon.  Triviality  of  women.  Early  ma- 
turity of  woman.  Kindness  of  woman.  Deceit  of 
woman.  Woman  lives  for  the  species.  Trade  jealousy 
among  women.  The  unaesthetic  sex.  No  mastery  of 
art.  Philistinism  of  woman.  The  sexes  unequal. 
Woman  in  European  society.  The  lady-nuisance.  The 
laws  of  marriage.  Dependence  of  woman.  The  lord- 
nuisance.  Blindness  of  pessimism.  Woman  from  man's 
standpoint.  Unnatural  competition.  Evolution  of  the 
home.  Freedom  of  man.  For  each  defect  a  historic 
cause.  Force  breeds  deceit.  The  equal  marriage.  Being 
a  woman.  Release  from  work  not  idleness. 

XIV.— THE  STABILITY  OF  TRUTH 334 

Assaults  on  the  integrity  of  science.  The  secret  of 
power.  Human  experience  the  basis  of  knowledge. 
Knowledge  and  belief.  Views  of  the  Marquis  of  Salis- 
bury. Views  of  Arthur  J.  Balfour.  Human  experience 
not  objective.  Ineffectiveness  of  reason.  The  nature  of 
self.  The  terms  of  human  experience.  The  measure  of 
a  man.  Nature  of  sanity.  The  infinite  understanding. 
The  test  of  truth.  The  matter  philosophy  deals  with. 


ANALYSIS   OF   CONTENTS.  XV 

PAGE 

Protyl.  Religion  and  belief.  Haeckel's  Confession  of 
Faith.  Monism.  Unity  of  organic  and  inorganic  Na- 
ture. Unity  of  chemical  elements.  Monism  not  science. 
Spontaneous  generation  not  science.  Reincarnation. 
Haeckel's  definition  of  belief.  The  inheritance  of  ac- 
quired characters.  The  courage  of  patience.  Revision 
of  science  by  philosophy.  Science  stops  where  facts  stop. 
Primal  motive  of  science.  Message  of  science.  Philo- 
sophic doubt  and  common  sense.  Each  organism  a  link 
in  the  chain  of  life.  Life  deals  in  realities.  Convention- 
ality. Authority.  Instinct  springs  from  past  conditions. 
Intellect  points  forward.  Practicality  of  sensations.  The 
sober  mind.  The  recrudescence  of  superstition.  Life 
based  on  dreams  and  illusions.  Sensation  truthful  in 
the  degree  that  action  is  possible.  Hyperaesthesia  of  sci- 
ence. Trust  in  reality  makes  life  safe.  Meaning  of 
pain.  Value  of  ideals.  The  course  of  life.  The  world 
as  it  is.  Subordination  of  impulses.  The  search  for 
truth. 

XV. — THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  REALITIES      ....  366 

The  price  of  truth.  The  mystic  sanction.  The  strug- 
gle against  tradition.  The  struggle  against  learning. 
The  struggle  in  the  human  mind.  Nature  of  the  mind. 
Practicality  of  the  senses.  Suggestion  and  convention- 
ality. The  forces  outside  ourselves.  Fear  and  worship 
of  the  unseen  powers.  The  science  of  our  childhood. 
The  world  as  it  is.  The  conflict  between  science  and  re- 
ligion. The  struggle  between  science  and  dogmatic  the- 
ology. The  essence  of  conservatism.  The  effort  to  limit 
thought.  The  effort  to  control  action.  The  passing  of 
institutions. 

INDEX 379 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 


FIG.  PAGE 

1.  Pineal  eye  of  lizard  (ffatteria)  (after  Spencer)  ...  34 

2.  Pineal  eye  of  lizard,  in  section  (after  Spencer)          .         .  34 

3.  Head   of   horned   toad   (Phrynosomd)  (after   nature,    by 

W.  S.  Atkinson) 35 

4.  Conjugation  of  Infusoria  (after  Leuckart)         ...  92 

5.  Karyokinesis  of  cell  (after  Driiner)   .         .         .         .         .  155 

6.  Reduction  of  chromatin  in  egg-cleavage  (after  Boveri)    .  160 

7.  Development  of  Pandorina  (after  Pringsheim)         .         .  165 

8.  Colony  of  Rudorina  with  antherozooids  (after  Goebel)     .  167 

9.  Diagram  of  development  of  spermatozoa  (after  Boveri)  .  172 

10.  Fertilization  of  egg  (after  Boveri) 174 

n.   Reduction    of    chromosomes   in   developing   egg   (after 

Brauer) '               .         .         .  180 

12.  Maturation  of  egg  of  Cyclops  (after  Rlickert)     .         .         .  182 

13.  Larva  of  Echinus  (after  Boveri) 187 

14.  Hybrid  larva  of  Echinus  and  Spharechinus  (after  Boveri)  189 

15.  The  arctic  birch  (after  nature,  by  Anne  L.  Brown) .         .  209 

16.  Skeleton  of   greenling  (Hexagrammos)  (after  nature,  by 

W.  S.  Atkinson) 224 

17.  Skeleton  of  scarlet  rock-fish  (Sebastodes)  (after  nature,  by 

W.  S.  Atkinson) 224 

18.  Skeleton    of   angel    fish   (Angelichthys)  (after  nature,   by 

W.  S.  Atkinson) 225 

19.  Sacculina  after  leaving  the  egg  (after  Lang)     .         .         .  279 

20.  Sacculina  attaching  itself  (after  Lang)       ....  280 

21.  Sacculina,  an  early  stage  (after  Lang)       ....  280 

22.  Sacculina  after  absorption  of  limbs  (after  Lang)       .         .  280 

23.  Adult  Sacculina  attached  to  crab  (after  Lang) .         .         .  281 

2  xvii 


XV'iii  FOOT-NOTES   TO    EVOLUTION. 

FIG.  PAGE 

24.  Section  of  mature  Sacculina  (after  Lang).         .         .         .  281 

25.  Sacculina  attached  (after  Lang) 282 

26.  Sacculina  with  limbs  absorbed  (after  Lang)      .         .         .  282 

27.  Cretin  of  Aosta  (after  a  photograph  by  Dr.  J.  W.  Jenks)  285 

28.  Cretin  of  Aosta  (after  Edward  Whymper)          .         .         .  286 


FULL-PAGE    PLATES.  FAC,NG 

PLATE  PACK 

Some  chipmunks  of  California,  showing  distinct  spe- 
cies produced  through  isolation  (after  nature,  by 
William  Sacketon  Atkinson)     .         .        Frontispiece 
I. — Cephalopoda  ;  development  of  Glypkioceras  (after  na- 
ture, by  Mrs.  Frances  Rand  Smith) ....     240 
II. — Development  of  Glyphioceras  (after  nature,  by  Frances 

Rand  Smith) ,        .         .     242 

III. — Development  of  Schloenbachia  (after  nature,  by  Fran- 
ces Rand  Smith)        .         .         .        .         .        .         .     246 

IV. — Development  of  septa  in  Ammonites  (after  nature,  by 

Frances  Rand  Smith)        .         .        .        .  .     248 

V. — Forms  of  Ammonites  (after  nature,  by  Frances  Rand 

Smith) 252 


FOOT-NOTES    TO    EVOLUTION. 


i. 

THE   KINSHIP  OF   LIFE. 

No  one  with  good  eyes  and  brains  behind  them  has 

ever  looked  forth  on  the  varied   life  of  the  world,  on 

forest  or  meadow  or  brook  or  sea,  with- 

What  is  the  Qut  at  jeast  Qnce  asking  himself  the  ques- 


Slife  f  tl0n'  "  What  1S  the  CaUSG  °f  NatUre> 

less  variety  ?  "     We  see  many  kinds  of 

birds  and  trees  and  insects  and  fishes  and  flowers  and 
blades  of  grass,  and  yet  when  we  look  closely  we  find  not 
one  blade  of  grass  in  the  meadow  quite  like  another  blade. 
The  green  cloak  which  covers  the  brown  earth  is  the 
shield  under  which  millions  of  organisms,  brown  or 
green,  carry  on  their  life  work  ;  yet  not  one  organism 
in  the  world  in  body  or  mind  is  the  exact  measure  of 
its  neighbour.  But  with  all  this  the  real  variety  in  life 
is  far  greater  than  that  which  appears. 

Each  kind  of  animal  or  plant,  that  is,  each  set  of 

forms  which  in  the  vicissitudes  of  the  ages  has  become 

segregated  and  set  off  from  its  neigh- 

bours, is   called    in    biology   a   species. 
species?  °J         .  r 

The   number  of  these  species  is   great 

beyond  any  ordinary  conception.  I  have  an  old  book 
in  my  library,  the  tenth  edition  of  the  Systema  Naturae, 


2  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

published  by  Linnaeus  in  1758.  This  book  treats  of  all 
the  species  of  animals  known  a  century  and  a  half  ago. 

In  its  eight  hundred  and  twenty-three 
The  number  of  &  gome  four  thousand  different  kinds 

species.  .  ,  ,  ,  .,  , 

of   animals   are   named   and   described. 

But  for  every  one  of  these  enumerated  by  Linnaeus,  more 
than  two  hundred  kinds  are  known  to  the  modern  natu- 
ralist, and  the  number  of  species  still  unknown  doubt- 
less exceeds  that  of  those  already  recorded.  Every  year 
since  1864  there  has  been  published  in  London  a  plump 
octavo  volume  known  as  the  Zoological  Record.  Each 
of  these  volumes,  larger  than  the  whole  Systema  Naturae, 
contains  the  names  of  animals  new  to  science  added  to 
our  list  during  the  year  of  which  it  treats.  And  in  the 
record  of  each  year  we  find  the  names  of  about  three 
times  as  many  animals  as  are  mentioned  in  the  Systema 
Naturae.  Yet  the  field  shows  no  signs  of  exhaustion. 
As  these  volumes  stand  on  the  shelf  together  it  is  easy 
to  see  that  the  later  volumes  are  the  thickest,  and  that 
the  record  for  the  present  year  is  the  largest  of  all. 
Moreover,  what  is  true  of  the  increase  of  knowledge  in 
systematic  zoology  is  even  more  marked  in  the  case  of 
botany.  Such,  then,  is  the  variety  of  life  on  the  globe 
— a  variety  of  which  Linnasus  and  his  successors  had 
never  dared  to  dream. 

And  yet,  great  as  this  variety  is,  there  are,  after  all, 
only  a  few  types  of  structure  among  all  animals  and 
plants,  some  three  or  four  or  eight  or 
ten  general  modes  of  development,  and 
all    the    rest    are    modifications    from 
these  few  types.     It  is,  moreover,  true  that  all  living 
forms  are  but  series  of  modifications  and  extensions  of 
one  single  plan  of  structure.     All  have  the  same  frame- 
work of  cells,  and  in  each  cell  we  find  the  same  ultimate 
substance — the  mysterious  semi-fluid  network  of  proto- 


THE   KINSHIP   OF   LIFE.  3 

plasm,  which  is,  so  far  as  we  know,  the  physical  basis  of 
all  life;  and  the  equally  mysterious  nuclear  substance 
or  chromatin  which  in  some  fashion  presides  over  all 
the  movements  of  the  protoplasm  and  is  the  physical 
basis  of  the  phenomena  of  heredity.  The  same  laws  of 
heredity,  variability,  and  of  response  to  outside  stimulus 
hold  in  all  parts  of  the  organic  world.  All  organisms 
have  the  same  need  of  reproduction.  All  are  forced  to 
make  concession  after  concession  to  their  surroundings, 
and  in  these  concessions  all  progress  in  life  consists. 
And  at  last  each  organism  or  each  alliance  of  organisms 
must  come  to  the  greatest  concession  of  all,  which  we 
call  death. 

The  unity  in  life  is  then  not  less  a  fact  than  is  life's 
great  diversity.      Whatever  the  emphasis  we  may  lay 

upon  the  diversity  of  life,  the  essential 
Unity  in  variety.  ,  ,, 

unity  ot  all  organisms  must  not  be  for- 
gotten. This  fundamental  likeness  among  widely  varied 
forms  stands  as  the  basis  of  all  classification.  It  is  this 
only  which  makes  classification  possible  or  conceivable. 
These  bonds  of  union,  which  are  real  as  distinguished 
from  resemblances  which  are  merely  superficial  or  ap- 
parent, are  known  to  the  naturalist  as  homology.  The 
existence  of  homologies  is  the  fundamental  fact  in  bio- 
logical science.  It  has  been  regarded  as  a  mystery  of 
mysteries,  but  this  mystery  assumes  the  form  of  natural 
law  in  the  light  of  the  plain  fact  that  identity  of  structure 
is  the  simple  result  of  identity  of  parentage.  Homology 
in  any  form  is  simply  the  stamp  of  heredity.  In  other 
words,  homology  means  blood-relationship.  The  sim- 
plest explanation  is  the  truest  and  would  long  ago  have 
been  recognized  had  it  not  been  for  prejudices  of  va- 
rious sorts — theological  prejudices  that  saw  the  image 
of  God  in  man  only,  and  scientific  prejudices  which 
arose  from  the  surface  study  of  surfaces.  For  it  is  the 


4  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

inside  of  an  animal  which  tells  the  real  history  of  its 
ancestry ;  its  outside  tells  us  only  where  its  ancestors 
have  been. 

It  is  perfectly  certain  that  homology  represents  some 

real  law  of  Nature,  something  other  than  the  results  of 

mere  chance.     When  I  compare  my  arm 

The  meaning  of      with  that  Q£  neighbour,  I  find  differ- 

homology.  .  .  •»»-.. 

ences  in  size  and  proportions.    But  these 

are  superficial,  and  there  is  the  underlying  correspond- 
ence of  each  bone  and  muscle,  each  nerve  fibre,  artery, 
and  vein.  When  I  compare  my  arm  with  the  fore  leg  of 
a  dog  I  find  more  striking  differences,  for  the  dog's 
station  in  life  is  quite  unlike  my  own,  and  he  uses  his 
arm  for  different  purposes.  When  I  compare  my  arm 
with  the  wing  of  a  bird  or  the  pectoral  fin  of  a  fish,  the 
results  are  still  similar.  Though  the  differences  in  each 
succeeding  case  become  more  and  more  striking,  and 
the  resemblance  less  easy  to  trace,  yet  the  same  re- 
semblances exist,  and  a  closer  study  shows  that  these 
resemblances  far  outweigh  the  differences. 

We  say,  then,  that  homology  is  real,  and  whatever 
power  or  cause  has. acted  on  fishes  to  provide  them  with 
pectoral  fins  has  given  to  birds  wings,  to  the  dog  fore 
legs,  and  to  me  and  my  neighbour  arms.  The  arms  are 
appendages  more  specialized — that  is,  more  highly  fin- 
ished and  suited  to  more  purposes  than  the  others — but 
all  are  formed  of  the  same  pieces,  arranged  in  the  same 
way.  When  I  compare  my  arm,  however,  with  the  claw 
of  a  lobster,  the  limb  of  a  tree,  or  the  arm  of  a  star- 
fish, all  resemblances  in  gross  structure  disappear,  and 
we  have  only  the  analogies  connected  with  similar- 
ity of  function.  The  ultimate  homology  of  cell  for 
cell,  however,  remains  even  here  with  all  that  this  may 
signify. 

Now  the   problem   before   us  is  this :    What  is  the 


THE   KINSHIP   OF   LIFE.  5 

origin  of  variety  in  life,  and  how  does  it  come  that  this 

variety  is  based  on  essential  unity  ?     Or,  in  other  words, 
what  is  the  origin  of  species,  and  what 

The  origin  of  va-    jg   the  Qri    in  Qf   homology  ?      Obviously, 

nety  and  the  on-         .  ,  ,      ,  . 

gin  of  homology.   neither  of   these   Questions  can  be  an- 
swered  without  considering   the   other, 

and  obviously  both  presuppose  the  existence  of  life. 
As  to  the  origin  of  life,  we  have  as  yet  no  basis  for 

speculation.     We  can  only  say  as  a  matter  of  fact  that 
life  exists  on  the  earth,  which  was  once 

The  origin  of  life    Ufeless<      HQW   the   first   organism  came 

unknown. 

to  be  we  can  not  even  guess.     By  what 

clashing  of  elements  the  vital  spark  came  forth,  and 
whether  like  causes  can  or  do  still  produce  like  effects, 
no  one  can  say.  The  spontaneous  generation  of  organ- 
isms has  never  been  seen,  nor  with  our  dull  senses 
and  clumsy  instruments  could  it  ever  be  seen ;  for  an 
organism  without  a  history,  untouched  by  heredity,  un- 
selected  by  struggle,  unaffected  by  environment,  a  coin 
fresh  from  the  mint  of  creation,  would  be  a  fragment  of 
pristine  simplicity  as  far  beyond  our  grasp  as  the  mole- 
cules of  the  chemist.  It  is  likely  that  it  is  indeed  a 
molecule,  and  a  molecule  in  size  compares  with  a  drop 
of  water  much  as  an  orange  compares  with  the  sun.  If 
spontaneous  generation  exists,  such  creatures  as  bacilli 
and  infusoria,  small  though  they  are,  are  not  the  prod- 
ucts of  it ;  for  these  little  creatures  have  their  life  his- 
tory, their  habits,  and  their  heredity  as  firmly  fixed  as 
those  of  the  dog  or  the  oak.  A  life  history  presupposes 
a  long  ancestry,  and  it  is  absurd  to  expect  such  battle- 
scarred  organisms  as  the  least  we  know  to  spring  full 
developed  from  the  combination  of  any  of  the  compo- 
nent atoms. 

The  origin  of  life  is  as  yet  beyond  the  reach  of  spec- 
ulation.    We  can  not  even  bring  it  under  investigation, 


6  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

for  we  know  too  little  of  it  to  ask  of  Nature  even  an 
intelligent  question  which  shall  bear  upon  it.  But  sci- 
ence does  not  shrink  from  unanswered  problems.  What- 
ever exists  may  some  time  be  found  out,  and  some  day 
the  law  of  creation  may  become  as  much  a  part  of  our 
biological  knowledge  as  the  law  of  heredity  bids  fair 
soon  to  become. 

Having  stated  our  problem  of  the  origin  of  species, 
let  us  see  what  answers  have  been  made  to  it  by  some 
of  the  great  minds  of  the  past.  The  past  in  biology  is 
not  far  distant,  for  it  is  barely  a  century  since  biological 
problems  were  first  treated  as  living  questions.  A  cen- 
tury ago,  as  I  have  already  said,  comparatively  few 
species,  either  of  animals  or  plants,  were  known  to  the 
naturalist,  as  but  few  are  now  known  to  those  who  are 
not  engaged  in  Nature  study.  Most  of  these  were  not 
known  well.  The  question  as  to  their  origin  could  not 
be  asked,  for  the  very  idea  of  origins  was  an  unfamiliar 
one.  The  fact  of  the  enormous  succession  of  ages  that 
makes  up  geological  time,  the  thought  that  "  time  is  as 
long  as  space  is  wide,"  had  scarcely  entered  the  minds 
even  of  the  boldest  thinkers  of  that  day. 

In  this  condition  of  knowledge  the  answer  to  our 
question  was  easy.  Linnaeus  said  a  century  and  a  half 

ago :  "  There  are  as  many  different  spe- 
The  answer  of  cigs  nQw  ag  there  were  different  forms 
Linnaeus.  .  .  . 

created  in  the  beginning  by  the  Infinite 

Being."  But  Linnaeus,  with  his  few  boxes  of  dried 
plants  and  his  little  cabinet  of  stuffed  birds  and  dried 
fish  skins,  had  scant  conception  of  the  range  of  variety 
in  Nature,  while  of  the  underlying  unity  he  had  only 
occasional  glimpses.  That  the  animals  and  plants  in  his 
catalogue  were  the  last  in  a  long  succession  of  life  in 
which  species  after  species  had  appeared  and  dropped 
out,  dying  or  undergoing  such  changes  as  to  seem  to  us 


THE   KINSHIP   OF   LIFE.  7 

like  new  creations,  was  wholly  unknown  to  him.  And 
surely  these  considerations,  these  discoveries  of  a  cen- 
tury of  scientific  activity,  can  not  be  ignored  in  forming 
our  answer  to  the  question  of  the  origin  of  species. 

Some  half  a  century  after  Linnaeus,  another  natural- 
ist, still  greater  than  he,  gave  himself  to  the  study  of 
homologies,  and  formed  a  classification 
The  answer  of         Qf  aU  animals  Qn  the  basis  of  the  resem- 
Cuvier.  ....  , 

blances  seen  in  their  plans  of  organi- 
zation. It  was  known  to  him  that  there  had  been  many 
changes  in  the  history  of  life,  and  that  the  forms  now 
living  are  but  a  tithe  of  the  total  number  of  those  which 
have  existed. 

So  the  answer  of  Cuvier  was  substantially  this  :  There 
have  been  many  creations  and  destructions  of  life  in  the 
history  of  the  earth.  So  far  as  we  can  see,  it  appears  that 
there  are  as  many  species  now  as  there  were  different 
forms  created  by  the  Infinite  Being  at  the  beginning  of 
the  present  geological  era. 

But  it  was  not  easy  to  show  just  when  the  present 
era  began,  and  the  reasons  for  believing  in  the  repeated 
total  extinctions  and  creations  became  less  and  less 
strong  the  more  closely  the  evidence  was  examined. 
Nor  was  it  clear  why  the  new  creations  should  be  as 
it  were  merely  modified  duplicates  of  the  creatures  which 
had  preceded  them.  Why  should  the  Creator,  for  in- 
stance, in  covering  the  earth  with  a  new  creation,  carry 
it  right  on  in  the  same  lines  as  the  old  one?  Why 
should  he  give  us  not  merely  birds,  reptiles,  insects, 
shells,  and  ferns  as  before,  but  birds,  reptiles,  insects, 
shells,  and  ferns  only  to  be  distinguished  from  their  pre- 
decessors by  the  most  careful  study  of  men  who  have 
given  their  lives  to  such  discriminations  ? 

And  then  there  were  some  men  in  Cuvier's  time  who 
were  not  satisfied  with  the  answer  of  Cuvier.  Such  men 


8  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

were   Lamarck  and   Saint-Hilaire,  and  with  them   was 

he  who  has  been  called  "  the  sanest  of  men  "  —  Goethe. 

There  had  been,  they  thought,  in  reality 

no  new  era  and  no  new  creation  —  only  a 
Lamarck.  ' 

gradual  change  from  old  to  new,  from 

old  life  under  old  conditions  to  new  life  with  new  envi- 
ronment. The  natural  tendency  toward  progress  in  life, 
the  influence  of  the  creatures'  own  desires  and  needs, 
the  attempt  of  creatures  to  fit  themselves  to  new  sur- 
roundings were,  they  thought,  in  some  way  the  causes 
of  the  changes  in  forms  which  Cuvier  ascribed  to  new 
creations. 

But  there  were  some  facts  not  easy  to  explain  on 
these  suppositions,  and  the  causes  of  change  suggested 
by  Lamarck  seemed  to  most  thinkers  of  his  time  entirely 
disproportionate  to  the  changes  themselves.  Again,  the 
weight  of  the  great  names  of  Linnaeus  and  Cuvier  rested 
on  the  other  side,  and  authority  has  its  weight  in  science 
as  elsewhere  when  we  come  to  estimate  the  relative 
probability  of  different  conclusions.  Besides,  not  enough 
of  fact  was  in  anybody's  possession  to  take  these  dis- 
cussions out  of  the  region  of  speculation.  There  is  rea- 
son to  believe  that  Cuvier  himself  doubted  his  own  dic- 
tum as  to  the  special  creation,  unchanging  permanence, 
and  ultimate  extinction  of  species.  But  Cuvier  saw  no 
way  to  any  better  view,  and  he  believed  that  the  advance- 
ment of  science  would  come  through  the  gathering  and 
sorting  of  facts  rather  than  from  any  hypotheses,  how- 
ever ingenious,  as  to  the  origin  of  present  conditions. 

But  the  permanence  and  persistence  of  type  which 

Cuvier  had  demonstrated  came  to  be  a  necessary  ele- 

ment in  the  answer  to  the  still   vexed 

r  °f    question  of  the  orisin  of  sPecies-  And 


this  fact  of   unity  formed   the   corner- 
stone in  the  answer  given  by  Agassiz.     The  species  rep- 


THE   KINSHIP   OF   LIFE.  9 

resent  the  divine  thoughts  embodied  in  the  act  of  crea- 
tion. The  unity  exists  in  the  mind  of  the  Creator. 
He  made  them  all,  and  so  all  bear  the  stamp  of  his 
workmanship.  He  is  infinite,  and  so  they  exist  in  in- 
finite variety.  That  "  material  form  is  the  cover  of 
spirit  "  was  to  Agassiz  "  a  truth  at  once  fundamental 
and  self-evident."  Each  species  is,  then,  the  material 
form  which  clothes  a  divine  idea.  Homologies  arise 
not  from  diverging  lines  of  descent,  but  from  the  asso- 
ciations of  divine  ideas.  They  are  the  stamp  of  uni- 
formity which  must  accompany  all  works  of  a  single 
mind,  even  though  that  mind  be  infinite.  To  trace  this 
out  in  Nature  is  for  us  to  think  again  the  thoughts 
of  God. 

This  was  Agassiz's  answer,  and  it  has  the  charm  of 
poetry,  besides  breathing  the  spirit  of  deep  reverence 
which  characterized  this  great  naturalist,  to  whom  the 
laboratory  was  not  less  holy  than  the  church,  and  "  a 
physical  fact  not  less  sacred  than  a  moral  principle." 

It  is  a  beautiful  conception,  but  one  which  can  not 
be  exactly  measured  or  verified.  All  science  at  the  bot- 
tom -is  quantitative,  and  whatever  is  true  to  us  can  be 
reduced  to  measurement.  We  may,  moreover,  say  if  we 
choose  that  the  "  thought  of  God  "  is  not "  the  unchang- 
ing species,"  but  the  law  under  which  species  are  modi- 
fied and  changed.  Nature  is  made  up  of  changing  beings 
produced  and  acted  upon  by  unchanging  laws.  It  is  the 
mighty  unseen  force  itself  rather  than  the  visible  and 
transitory  object  of  its  action  which,  in  the  language  of 
poetry,  we  may  call  the  "  thought  of  God." 

The  progress  of  knowledge  comes  not  from  the 
growth  of  beautiful  conceptions,  but  from  the  subjec- 
tion of  all  conceptions  and  theories  to  the  crucial  test 
of  fact.  A  thought  which  can  not  be  put  to  the  test  of 
human  experience  forms  no  part  of  science. 


I0  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

And  so,  without  affirming  or  denying  these  views  of 
Agassiz,  scientific  men  have  not  been  satisfied  to  rest 
with  them. 

Admitting  that  each  species  has  been  created,  the 

question  of  method  is  still  pertinent.     What  is  creation  ? 

How   is   it    performed  ?      What   do   we 

What  is  special       m  fof    ex          k     by    «  special    crea- 

creation?  ....  .   .  ,        .  ,. 

tion     in  opposition  to  the  production  of 

species  through  variations  due  to  natural  causes?  What 
knowledge  have  we  of  the  origin  of  species  as  distin- 
guished from  the  birth  point  of  one  of  the  individuals 
of  this  species  ?  If  each  of  the  million  species  of  ani- 
mals and  plants  which  now  live,  and  each  of  the  mil- 
lions of  kinds  which  have  become  extinct,  has  been  the 
object  of  a  "  special  creation,"  then  "  special  creation  " 
is  but  a  name  to  cover  our  ignorance  of  the  law  by 
which  species  are  produced.  What  has  been  done  so 
many  times  must  be  done  in  some  uniform  way.  All 
our  experience  in  the  universe  tells  us  that  everything 
is  done  in  its  way  and  in  no  other.  We  no  longer  pic- 
ture the  Creator  as  forming  dogs  and  horses  and  men 
out  of  clay  and  then  breathing  into  them  the  breath  of 
life.  We  no  longer,  with  Milton,  "imagine  "  the  new 
created  lion  as  pawing  the  earth  "  to  free  his  hinder 
parts."  That  is  not  the  way  we  find  lions  made.  The 
lion  develops  from  the  unborn  lion  kitten,  and  this  un- 
born kitten,  through  heredity  typifies  its  cat-like  ances- 
tors. They  were  cat-like  before  they  became  lion-like. 

"  All  life  comes  from  life,"  is  a  maxim  of  the  early 
naturalists.     We  understand  in  some  measure  the  method 

of  birth,  the  method  by  which  individuals 
^ lifl  are  created.  Why  should  we  think  that 

the  creation  of  species,  special  series  of 
individuals,  has  come  about  in  any  way  other  than  this, 
when  we  know  of  no  other  ? 


THE   KINSHIP   OF   LIFE.  H 

Then  again,  if  species  be  the  subject  of  special  in- 
tervention such  as  some  have  imagined,  how  is  it  that 

after  years  of  study  we  are  still  uncer- 
Uncertam  tain  ag  tQ  their  characters  and  bounda- 

boundanes  of  . 

nes  ?  We  have  found  that  no  two  indi- 
species. 

viduals  of  any  species  are  ever  quite 
alike.  We  know  that  these  variations  group  themselves 
together  so  as  to  form  subordinate  races  or  varieties — • 
species  within  species.  We  know  that  again  and  again 
these  minor  forms  or  subspecies  have  been  mistaken  for 
real  species.  We  know  that  in  thousands  of  cases  to- 
day the  good  and  the  true  species  of  one  writer  will 
be  only  varieties  with  another.  We  know  that  every 
year  intermediate  forms  are  found  which  break  down 
the  walls  between  species,  so  that  the  better  any  group 
is  known  the  smaller  becomes  its  list  of  species  and 
the  greater  the  range  of  variations.  There  is  absolutely 
no  test  by  which  we  can  separate  species  from  races  or 
varieties.  Our  actual  test  is  the  test  of  ignorance. 
When  we  do  not  know  any  intervening  forms  we  regard 
two  given  species  as  distinct.  When  we  find  intergrada- 
tions  we  unite  these  species.  All  naturalists  have  been 
forced  to  admit  that  species  seem  to  be  but  varieties  "of 
a  larger  growth,"  while  varieties  seem  to  be  incipient 
species.'  These  facts  had  been  noticed  and  had  been 
admitted  long  before  most  naturalists  were  willing 
to  believe  that  such  appearances  were  anything  but 
most  deceitful.  Professor  Cope  tells  us  of  a  concholo- 
gist  who  kept  his  species  of  shells  from  varying  by 
crushing  under  his  heel  all  specimens  which  in  any  way 
tended  to  depart  from  the  proper  type.  It  is  only  by 
such  methods  as  this  that  different  species  can  be  kept 
distinct  from  each  other. 

Let  us  take  an  illustration  out  of  many  that  come  to 
hand.  Continued  explorations  bring  to  light  from  year 


12  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

to  year  new  species  of  fishes  in  North  American  rivers ; 

but  the  number  of  new  forms  now  discovered  each  year  is 

usually  less  than  the  number  of  old  spe- 

Jhue  sPec*f  o{       cies  which  are  yearly  proved  intenable. 

fishes  of  North  • .        J   ^ 

America  Four  complete  lists  of  the  fresh-water 

fishes  of  the  United  States  have  been 
published  by  the  present  writer  and  his  associates.  That 
of  1876  enumerated  670  species;  that  of  1878  contained 
665  ;  the  third,  in  1885,  only  587  species,  although  up- 
ward of  75  new  species  were  detected  in  the  nine  years 
which  elapsed  between  the  first  and  the  third  list.  f  The 
list  of  1896,  with  50  more  additions,  contains  599  spe- 
cies. Additional  specimens  from  intervening  localities 
are  found  to  form  connecting  links  among  the  nominal 
species,  and  thus  several  supposed  species  become  in 
time  merged  in  one,  while  not  unfrequently  the  sup- 
posed minor  variations  are  the  marks  of  what  we  must 
finally  regard  as  real  species.  Their  reality  consists 
simply  in  the  extinction  of  the  intervening  forms. 

We  have  briefly  reviewed  the  condition  of  this  prob- 
lem and  its  answers  before  1836,  when  Charles  Darwin 

returned  to  England  after  the  voyage 
The  species  of  of  the  B  le>  while  in  South  America 
the  Galapagos. 

he  had  been  greatly  impressed  by  two 

phases  of  the  question  which  came  to  his  notice  during 
his  explorations  there.  The  first  of  these  was  the  fauna 
of  the  Galapagos  Islands,  a  rocky  cluster  lying  well  out 
to  sea  some  five  hundred  miles  off  the  coast  of  Peru  and 
Ecuador.  The  sea  birds  of  these  islands  are  essentially 
the  same  as  those  of  the  shores  of  Peru.  So  with  most 
of  the  fishes.  We  can  see  how  this  might  well  be,  for 
both  sea  birds  and  fishes  can  readily  pass  from  the  one 
region  to  the  other.  But  the  land  birds,  as  well  as  the 
reptiles,  insects,  and  plants,  are  mostly  peculiar  to  the 
islands.  The  same  species  are  found  nowhere  else;  but 


THE   KINSHIP   OF   LIFE.  13 

other  species,  very  much  like  them  in  all  respects,  are 
found,  and  these  live  along  the  coast  of  Peru.  In  the 
Galapagos  Islands,  according  to  Darwin's  notes,  "  there 
are  twenty-six  land  birds.  Of  these,  twenty-one,  or 
perhaps  twenty-three,  are  ranked  as  distinct  species  and 
would  commonly  have  been  assumed  to  have  been  here 
created,  yet  the  close  affinity  of  most  of  these  birds  to 
American  species  is  manifest  in  every  character,  in  their 
habits,  gestures,  and  tones  of  voice.  So  it  is  with  the 
other  animals  and  with  a  large  proportion  of  the  plants. 
.  .  .  The  naturalist,  looking  at  the  inhabitants  of  these 
volcanic  islands  in  the  Pacific,  feels  that  he  is  standing 
on  American  land." 

The  question,  then,  is  this  :  If  these  species  have 
been  created  as  we  find  them  on  the  Galapagos  Islands, 
why  is  it  that  they  should  all  be  very  similar  in  type  to 
other  animals  living  under  wholly  different  conditions 
but  on  a  coast  not  so  very  far  away  ?  And,  again,  why 
are  the  animals  and  plants  of  another  cluster  of  volcanic 
islands — the  Cape  Verde  Islands — similarly  related  to 
those  of  the  neighbouring  coast  of  Africa  and  wholly  un- 
like those  of  the  Galapagos  ?  If  the  animals  were  cre- 
ated to  match  their  conditions  of  life,  then  those  of  the 
Galapagos  should  be  like  those  of  Cape  Verde,  the  two 
archipelagos  being  extremely  alike  in  respect  to  soil, 
climate,  and  physical  surroundings.  If  the  species  on 
the  islands  are  products  of  separate  acts  of  creation, 
what  is  there  in  the  nearness  of  the  coasts  of  Africa  or 
Peru  to  influence  the  act  of  creation  so  as  to  cause 
the  island  species  to  be,  as  it  were,  echoes  of  those  on 
shore  ? 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  should  adopt  the  obvious 
conclusion  that  both  of  these  clusters  of  islands  have  been 
at  one  time  or  another  colonized  by  emigrants  from  the 
mainland,  by  the  waifs  of  wind  and  storm,  the  fact  of 


14  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

uniformity  of  type  is  accounted  for.     But  what  of  the 
difference  of  species  ?     If  change  of  conditions  may  on 
the  islands  cause  great  and  permanent  changes  in  a  spe- 
cies so  as  to  transform  it  into  a  different 

Do  species  species,  may  not  the  same  change  take 

change  with  ,  , 

ace?  place  elsewhere  ?    May  it  not  happen  on 

the  mainland  as  well  as  on  the  islands  ? 
And  if  on  the  mainland,  what  guarantee  have  we  of  the 
permanence  of  species  anywhere  ?  May  they  not  be  con- 
stantly changing  ?  May  not  what  we  consider  as  a  distinct 
species  be  only  the  present  phase  in  the  changing  history 
of  the  series  of  forms  which  constitutes  the  species  ? 

The  other  phase  of  the  problem  which  was  presented 
to  Darwin  was  that  of  the  succession  of  fossil  and  re- 
cent mammalia,  especially  the  edentates 
The  species  of       (ant.eaters,  armadillos),   etc.,    in   South 
South  American  .  ,TT     _     ,  . 

edentates  America.     We  find  m  the  extinct  species 

the  same  peculiarities  of  structure  that 
we  see  in  the  forms  still  living.  These  peculiarities  are 
not  shown  by  animals  either  recent  or  fossil  in  other 
parts  of  the  globe.  If  each  of  these  species  has  been 
an  independent  creation,  by  what  law  should  the  re- 
cent forms  duplicate  the  peculiarities  of  the  extinct 
forms  ?  Is  the  process  of  creation  in  some  way  influ- 
enced by  the  peculiarities  of  forms  which  have  pre- 
ceded these  in  the  same  region  and  not  by  forms  which 
live  in  other  regions  ?  The  explanation  is  not  to  be 
found  in  the  adjustment  of  species  to  their  conditions 
of  life,  for  under  similar  conditions  in  other  regions,  as 
in  Australia,  are  found  forms  wholly 
different.  But  as  edentate  has  suc- 
ceeded  edentate  in  South  America,  so 
marsupial  has  succeeded  marsupial  in 
Australia.  Is  the  explanation  in  both  cases  to  be  found 
in  the  supposition  that  the  recent  forms  in  both  of  these 


V 


THE   KINSHIP   OF   LIFE.  !5 

continents  are  modified  descendants  of  extinct  forms? 
But  if  this  be  so,  what  certainty  have  we  that  other 
creatures  have  not  been  similarly  modified  ?  And  may 
they  not  be  still  undergoing  modification  ?  Then  why 
may  not  the  origin  of  species  be  due  to  descent  with 
modifications  ?  The  difference  in  species  would  then  be 
the  result  of  the  influences  which  make  for  change,  and 
the  unity  would  be  due  simply  to  the  action  of  the  law 
of  the  heredity. 

And  this  is  the  theory  which  Darwin  finally  reached. 
The  unity  would  be  accounted  for  easily  enough,  for  by 
this  view  homology  is  the  simple  index  of  common  he- 
redity. The  fact  of  variation  could  be  shown,  but  what 
could  be  the  cause  of  variations  so  universal  and  on 
such  a  grand  scale  as  we  find  them  in  Nature  ?  If  this 
law  could  be  worked  out,  then  the  innumerable  facts 
of  homology  and  variation  would  have  a  meaning  in- 
stead of  being  as  before  so  many  isolated  curiosities  of 
Nature.  To  the  working  out  of  this  law  he  gave 
twenty-five  years  of  his  life,  gathering  information  from 
every  source  accessible  to  man. 

To  the  famous  botanist,  Joseph  D.  Hooker,  Darwin 

wrote  in  1844:  "Besides  a  general  interest  about  the 

southern  lands,  I  have  been  now  ever 

since  my  return  engaged  in  a  very  pre- 
answer.  '  *  * 

sumptuous  work,  and  I    know  no   one 

individual  who  would  not  say  a  very  foolish  one.  I  was 
so  struck  with  the  distribution  of  the  Galapagos  organ- 
isms and  with  the  character  of  the  American  fossil  mam- 
mifers  that  I  determined  to  collect  blindly  every  sort  of 
fact  which  could  bear  in  any  way  on  what  are  species. 
I  have  read  heaps  of  agricultural  and  horticultural  books 
and  have  never  ceased  collecting  facts.  At  last  gleams 
of  light  have  come,  and  I  am  almost  convinced  (quite 
contrary  to  the  opinion  I  started  with)  that  species  are 
3 


X6  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

not  (it  is  like  confessing  a  murder)  immutable.  Heaven 
forfend  me  from  Lamarck  nonsense  of  a  tendency  to 
*  progression,'  '  adaptations  from  the  slow  willing  of 
animals,'  etc.  But  the  conclusions  I  am  led  to  are  not 
widely  different  from  his,  though  the  means  of  change 
are  wholly  so.  I  think  I  have  found  out  (here's  pre- 
sumption !)  the  simple  way  by  which  species  become 
exquisitely  adapted  to  various  ends." 

In  the  preface  to  the  Origin  of  Species,  published  in 
1859,  he  outlined  his  plan  of  work  in  the  following 
words : 

"When  on  board   H.  M.  S.  Beagle  as  naturalist,  I 

was  much  struck  with  certain  facts  in  the  distribution 

of  the  organic  beings  inhabiting  South 

America,  and  in  the  geological  relations 
method. 

of  the  present  to  the  past  inhabitants  of 

the  continent.  These  facts  seem  to  throw  some  light 
on  the  origin  of  species,  that  mystery  of  mysteries,  as  it 
has  been  called  by  one  of  our  greatest  philosophers. 
On  my  return  home  it  occurred  to  me  (in  1837)  that 
something  might  perhaps  be  made  out  on  this  question 
by  patiently  accumulating  and  reflecting  on  all  sorts  of 
facts  which  could  possibly  have  any  bearing  on  it. 
After  five  years  I  allowed  myself  to  speculate  on  the 
subject,  and  drew  up  some  short  notes.  These  I  en- 
larged in  1844  into  a  sketch  of  the  conclusions  which 
then  seemed  to  me  to  be  probable.  From  that  period 
to  the  present  day  I  have  steadily  pursued  the  same 
object.  I  hope  that  I  may  be  excused  for  entering 
upon  these  personal  details,  as  I  give  them  to  show 
that  I  have  not  been  hasty  in  coming  to  a  conclusion." 

"Mother  Nature,"  says  Huxley,  "is  singularly  ob- 
durate to  honeyed  words.  Only  those  who  understand 
the  ways  of  things,  and  can  silently  and  effectively  use 
them,  get  much  good  out  of  her." 


THE   KINSHIP   OF    LIFE.  17 

Let  me  speak  of  certain  traits  of  this  work,  the  Ori- 
gin of  Species,  which  give  it  a  position  almost  alone 

among  books  of  science.  There  is  in 
The  Origin  o  ^  nQ  statement  of  fact  of  anv  import- 

Species.  .  , 

ance    which,    during    the    nearly   forty 

years  since  it  was  first  published,  has  been  shown  to  be 
false.  In  its  theoretical  part  there  is  no  argument 
which  has  been  shown  to  be  unfair  or  fallacious.  In 
these  forty  years  no  serious  objection  has  been  raised 
to  any  important  conclusion  of  his  which  was  not  at  the 
time  fully  anticipated  and  frankly  met  by  him.  Indeed, 
there  are  but  few  of  these  objections  which  with  our 
present  knowledge  are  not  much  less  weighty  than  Dar- 
win then  admitted.  The  progress  of  science  has  bridged 
over  many  chasms  in  the  evidence. 

There  is  in  this  work  nowhere  a  suggestion  of  special 
pleading  or  of  overstatement.  The  writer  is  a  judge 
and  not  an  advocate,  and  from  his  decisions  there  has 
been  no  successful  appeal.  There  is  in  this  or  any  other 
of  Darwin's  works  scarcely  a  line  of  controversial  writ- 
ing. He  has  been  the  faithful  mirror  of  Nature.  The 
relations  of  Nature  to  metaphysics  he  has  left  to  others. 
The  tornados  which  have  blown  about  the  Origin  of 
Species  are  not  his  work.  He  felt,  perhaps,  that  most 
systems  of  philosophy  are  like  air  plants  which  thrive 
equally  well  in  any  soil ;  with  just  facts  enough  for  their 
roots  to  cling  to,  they  may  grow  and  bloom  perennially, 
without  other  food  than  the  air. 

The  "  Darwinian  theory,"  as  resulting  from  these 
many  years  of  gathering  of  facts,  may  be  briefly  stated 

as  follows  :  The  various  species  of  ani- 
The  Darwinian 

the  descendants  of  pre-existing  forms 
which  have  in  various  ways  undergone  modification. 
The  homologies  existing  among  them  are  the  result  of 


1 8  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

inheritance  from  their  common  ancestry.  The  differ- 
ences have  come  about  through  various  natural  influ- 
ences, chief  among  which  is  the  competition  in  the 
struggle  for  existence  between  individuals  and  between 
species,  whereby  those  best  adapted  to  their  surroundings 
live  and  reproduce  their  kind.  Any  advantage  of  the 
individual,  no  matter  how  small,  must  be  a  help  in  its  life 
struggle.  This  advantage  inherited  becomes  the  gain  of 
the  species.  The  various  influences  connected  with  this 
struggle  were  summed  up  in  the  comprehensive  term  of 
"natural  selection,"  or,  as  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  has 
termed  it,  "the  survival  of  the  fittest."  The  latter  term 
is,  however,  only  half  as  large  as  the  former,  because  "  the 
survival  of  the  existing  "  is  in  many  regards  a  factor  as 
potent  as  the  actual  survival  of  the  fittest.  To  be  on  the 
ground  is  a  factor  not  less  important  in  determining  sur- 
vival than  to  have  a  special  fitness  for  the  conditions  of 
life.  The  epithet  "  natural  "  in  natural  selection  is  also 
of  vital  importance  as  distinguished  on  the  one  hand  from 
"  artificial,"  or  produced  by  human  agency,  and  on  the 
other  hand  from  "supernatural,"  or  produced  by  un- 
knowable agencies.  "  Fitness  "  in  this  sense  of  course 
means  simply  the  power  to  win  in  the  particular  kind  of 
contest  that  may  be  in  question,  no  moral  element  and 
no  element  of  general  progress  being  necessarily  in- 
volved. The  term  "  natural  selection  "  originated  from 
the  use  of  the  word  "selection  "  by  breeders  of  animals 
to  indicate  the  process  of  "  weeding  out "  by  which  they 
improve  their  herds.  For  the  method  by  which  in 
Nature  a  new  species  is  brought  into  existence  seems 
to  be  precisely  parallel  to  that  by  which  we  may  arti- 
ficially produce  a  new  breed  of  cows  or  of  dogs,  a  new 
race  of  pigeons,  or  a  new  variety  of  roses.  The  record  of 
man's  work  in  the  creation  of  species  covers  some  of  the 
most  glorious  of  human  achievements,  none  the  less  won- 


THE    KINSHIP    OF    LIFE.  \g 

derful  because  they  have  taken  place  before  our  very 
eyes.  To  know  the  laws  of  heredity  and  to  select  domes- 
tic animals  and  plants  so  to  reach  our  ends  in  accord- 
ance with  these  laws  is  indeed  a  creation.  Artificial 

selection,  says  Youatt,  is  the  "  magician's 
Artificial  wand  „  b  which  the  breeder  can  sum- 

selection. 

mon  up  whatever  animal  torm  he  will. 

One  might,  according  to  Somerville,  chalk  out  on  the 
wall  the  form  of  sheep  he  most  desired,  and  then  de- 
velop it  by  attention  to  selection  of  parentage.  The 
processes  of  heredity  would  bring  this  about  by  laws  as 
unvarying  as  that  by  which  a  stream  is  forced  to  turn  a 
mill.  Professor  Goodale  tells  us  that  were  all  our  fruit 
trees  destroyed  and  the  species  exterminated,  they  could 
all  be  won  back  again  by  the  selective  culture  of  wild 
pomes  and  berries. 

"  Natural    selection "    is,    however,    an    affirmative 
phrase  for  what  is  largely   a   negative 

Natural  process.      "Natural  extinction."  or  the 

selection. 

destruction  of  the  unfittest,  would  some- 
times express  the  same  idea  better. 

No  more  striking  statement  of  the  universality  of 
the  struggle  for  existence  and  of  its  power  to  compel  some 
form  of  selection — natural,  of  course — has  ever  been 
made  than  that  given  by  Darwin  in  the  Origin  of 
Species.  From  this  I  quote  : 

"  I  use  this  term,  struggle  for  existence,  in  a  large 
and  metaphorical  sense,  including  dependence  of  one 

being  on  another,  and  including  (which 
The  struggle  for  ig  mQre  im  tant)  not  onl  the  Ufe  of 
existence.  ... 

the   individual,  but  success   in    leaving 

progeny.  Two  canine  animals,  in  a  time  of  dearth,  may 
be  truly  said  to  struggle  with  each  other  which  shall  get 
food  and  live.  But  a  plant  on  the  edge  of  a  desert  is 
said  to  struggle  for  life  against  the  drouth,  though  more 


20  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

properly  it  should  be  said  to  be  dependent  upon  the 
moisture.  A  plant  which  annually  produces  a  thousand 
seeds,  of  which  only  one  on  an  average  comes  to  matur- 
ity, may  be  more  truly  said  to  struggle  with  the  plants 
of  the  same  and  other  kinds  which  already  clothe  the 
ground.  The  mistletoe  is  dependent  on  the  apple  and 
a  few  other  trees,  but  it  can  only  in  a  far-fetched  sense 
be  said  to  struggle  with  these  trees  for  if  too  many  of 
these  parasites  grow  on  the  same  tree  it  languishes  and 
dies.  But  several  seedling  mistletoes  growing  close 
together  on  the  same  branch  may  more  truly  be  said  to 
struggle  with  each  other.  As  the  mistletoe  is  dissemi- 
nated by  birds,  its  existence  depends  upon  them ;  and  it 
may  metaphorically  be  said  to  struggle  with  other  fruit- 
bearing  plants  in  tempting  the  birds  to  devour  and  thus 
disseminate  its  seeds.  In  these  several  senses,  which 
pass  into  each  other,  I  use  for  convenience'  sake  the 
general  term  of  '  struggle  for  existence.'  " 

Darwin  says  that  there  is  nothing  which  people  are 
more  willing  to  concede  than  the  struggle  for  existence, 
and  yet  nothing  can  be  more  inadequate  than  the  ordi- 
nary conception  of  it.  He  further  says : 

"  A  struggle  for  existence  inevitably  follows  from 
the  high  rate  at  which  all  organic  beings  tend  to  increase. 
Every  being,  which  during  its  natural  lifetime  produces 
several  eggs  or  seeds,  must  suffer  destruction  during 
some  period  of  its  life,  and  during  some  season  or  occa- 
sional year;  otherwise,  on  the  principle  of  geometric 
increase,  the  numbers  would  quickly  become  so  inordi- 
nately great  that  no  country  could  support  the  product." 

It  is  one  of  the  axioms  of  mathematics  that  any  geo- 
metrical progression  will  in  time  outrun  any  arithmetical 
one.  Multiplication  outruns  addition. 

4<  Hence  .  .  .  there  must  in  every  case  be  a  struggle 
for  existence,  either  one  individual  with  another  of  the 


THE   KINSHIP   OF   LIFE.  21 

same  species,  or  with  the  individuals  of  distinct  species, 
or  with  the  physical  conditions  of  life.  It  is  the 
doctrine  of  Malthus  applied  with  manifold  force  to  the 
whole  animal  and  vegetable  kingdoms;  for  in  this  case 
there  can  be  no  artificial  increase  of  food,  and  no  pru- 
dential restraint  from  marriage.  Although  some  species 
may  be  now  increasing,  more  or  less  rapidly,  in  numbers, 
all  can  not  do  so,  for  the  world  would  not  hold  them. 
There  is  no  exception  to  the  rule  that  every  organic 
being  naturally  increases  at  so  high  a  rate  that  if  not 
destroyed  the  earth  would  soon  be  covered  with  the 
progeny  of  a  single  pair.  Even  slow-breeding  man  has 
doubled  in  twenty-five  years,  and,  at  this  rate,  in  less 
than  a  thousand  years  there  would  literally  not  be  stand- 
ing room  for  his  progeny.  .  .  .  The  elephant  is  reckoned 
the  slowest  breeder  of  all  known  animals,  and  I  have 
taken  some  pains  to  estimate  its  probable  minimum  rate 
of  increase ;  it  will  be  safest  to  assume  that  it  begins 
breeding  when  thirty  years  old,  and  goes  on  breeding 
until  ninety  years  old,  bringing  forth  six  young  in  the 
interval,  and  surviving  till  one  hundred  years  old ;  if 
this  be  so,  after  a  period  of  from  seven  hundred  and  forty 
to  eight  hundred  and  forty  years  there  would  be  nearly 
nineteen  million  elephants  alive,  descended  from  the 
first  pair." 

Darwin  continues :  "  I  have  found  that  the  visits  of 
bees  are  necessary  for  the  fertilization  of  some  kinds  of 

clover ;  for  instance,  twenty  heads  of 
Relation  of  bees  white  dover  ,Trifolium  r#ens)  yielded 
to  clover.  *  '  . 

two  thousand  two  hundred  and  ninety 

seeds,  but  twenty  other  heads  protected  from  bees  pro- 
duced not  one.  Again,  one  hundred  heads  of  red  clover 
(Trifolium  pratense)  produced  two  thousand  seven  hun- 
dred seeds,  but  the  same  number  of  protected  heads  pro- 
duced not  a  single  seed.  Humble-bees  alone  visit  red  clo- 


22  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

ver,  as  other  bees  can  not  reach  the  nectar.  .  .  .  Hence 
we  may  infer  as  highly  probable  that,  if  the  whole  genus 
of  humble-bees  became  extinct  or  very  rare  in  England, 
the  heartease  and  red  clover  would  become  very  rare 
or  wholly  disappear.  The  number  of  humble-bees  in 
any  district  depends  in  a  great  measure  on  the  number 
of  field  mice,  which  destroy  their  combs  and  nests;  and 
Col.  Newman,  who  has  long  attended  to  the  habits  of 
humble-bees,  believes  that  more  than  two  thirds  of  them 
are  thus  destroyed  all  over  England.  Now  the  number 
of  mice  is  largely  dependent,  as  everyone  knows,  on  the 
number  of  cats;  and  Col.  Newman  says,  'Near  villages  and 
small  towns  I  have  found  the  nests  of  humble-bees  more 
numerous  than  elsewhere,  which  I  attribute  to  the  num- 
ber of  cats  that  destroy  the  mice.'  Hence  it  is  quite 
credible  that  the  presence  of  feline  animals  in  large 
numbers  in  a  district  might  determine,  through  the  in- 
tervention first  of  mice  and  then  of  bees,  the  frequency 
of  certain  flowers  in  that  district." 

Huxley  carries  this  calculation  still  further  by  show- 
ing that  the  number  of  cats  is  dependent  on  the  number 

of  unmarried  women.  On  the  other 
Relation  of  cats  hand  dover  produces  beef  and  beef 
to  England  s  .  ^.  .  , 

greatness.  strength.     Thus  in  a  degree  the  prowess 

of  England  is  related  to  the  number  of 
spinsters  in  its  rural  districts.  This  statement  would  be 
true  in  all  seriousness  were  it  not  that  so  many  other  ele- 
ments come  into  the  calculation.  But  whether  true  or 
not,  it  illustrates  the  way  in  which  causes  and  effects  in 
biology  become  intertangled. 

The  calculation  has  been  lately  made  by  Prof.  Rufus 
L.  Green  that  at  the  normal  rate  of  increase  from  a  pair 
of  English  sparrows,  if  none  were  to  die  except  of  old 
age,  it  would  take  but  twenty  years  to  give  one  sparrow 
to  every  square  inch  in  the  State  of  Indiana.  But  such 


THE    KINSHIP   OF   LIFE.  23 

increase  is  actually  impossible;  for  more  than  a  hundred 
other  species  of  similar  birds  are  disputing  the  same  ter- 
ritory, and  there  can  not  be  place  or  food  for  all.  With 

such  conditions,  the  struggle  for  exist- 
The  equilibrium  ,  , 

ence  between  sparrow  and  sparrow,  and 
of  Nature. 

between  sparrows  and  other  birds,  grows 

yearly  more  severe.  Each  year  now  the  sparrow  gains  a 
little  and  other  birds  lose  correspondingly,  but  sooner  or 
later  with  each  species  a  point  will  be  reached  when  the 
loss  exactly  balances  the  increase.  This  produces  a 
condition  of  apparent  equiliibrum — the  equilibrium  of 
Nature;  a  sort  of  armed  neutrality  which  a  superficial 
observer  mistakes  for  real  peace  and  permanence.  But 
this  equilibrium  is  broken  as  soon  as  any  individual  or 
group  of  individuals  appears  that  can  do  something 
more  than  merely  hold  its  own  in  a  struggle  for  existence. 
It  is  thus  evident  that  throughout  all  Nature  the 
number  of  organisms  born  into  life  is  far  in  excess  of 
the  number  of  those  which  can  come  to 
More  organisms  maturityi  In  every  species  the  majority 
born  than  can  ,  ,  .  ,  ,,  ,  ,  . 

mature  never  reach  their  full  growth,  and  this 

is  because,  for  one  reason  or  another, 
they  can  not  do  so.  All  live  who  can.  Nature  asks 
each  organism,  Why  should  you  live  ?  And  those  who 
can  not  give  an  answer  pass  away.  "So  careful  of  the 
type  she  seems ;  so  careless  of  the  single  life."  It  is 
also  evident,  to  use  the  language  of  Professor  Bergen, 
that  "the  killing  will  not  be  indiscriminate,  but  it  will 
first  and  mainly  comprise  those  individuals  which  are 
least  able  to  resist  the  attack."  It  is  this  "  weeding- 
out  "  process  in  Nature,  this  "  natural  selection,"  which 
in  Darwin's  view  constitutes  the  essential  cause  of 
change  and  progress.  Of  the  many  possible  illustra- 
tions of  the  action  of  "  natural  selection,"  one  may  serve 
our  purpose  at  present. 


24 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


In  the  eastern  United  States  there  are  two  native 
species  of  hare  or  wild  rabbit.    These  are  the  gray  rabbit 

or  "cotton-tail  "  (Lepus  sylvaticus)  of  the 
How  the  hare  ion  ^^  Q£  Pennsylvania  and  the 

becomes  white.  .  ,,./,-  .  \  , 

white  rabbit  (Lepus  amencanus)  of    the 

woodlands  of  the  North.  The  southern  hare  is  smaller 
than  the  other;  it  is  much  less  shy,  and  its  winter  dress 
is  not  very  different  from  its  summer  dress,  the  fur 
which  comes  in  after  the  autumn  shedding  being  of  the 
same  grayish  colour.  The  northern  hare  is  in  summer 
not  very  different  in  colour  from  the  other,  but  when  it 
renews  its  fur  in  the  fall  its  winter  coat  is  pure  snow- 
white.  There  are  some  other  distinctions  between  the 
two  species,  but  we  need  notice  simply  the  difference  in 
colour  as  showing  the  principle  of  "  natural  selection." 
We  may  presume  the  two  species  to  have  had  one  com- 
mon origin,  probably  in  a  form  not  very  different  from 
the  gray  rabbit  as  we  know  it.  In  every  dozen  rabbits 
which  we  may  examine  we  shall  find  a  considerable 
variation  in  shade  of  colour.  Some  will  be  darker  than 
the  average,  some  grayer,  some  browner,  and  others 
evidently  paler.  We  shall  find  also  differences  in  size 
and  proportions,  besides  other  differences,  but  for  the 
present  we  need  only  consider  the  matter  of  colour. 
In  the  South,  where  the  ground  is  mostly  free  from 
snow,  even  in  winter,  whiteness  would  be  of  no  sort  of 
advantage  to  a  rabbit.  The  nearer  the  animal  is  in 
colour  to  the  dead  grass  and  dried  leaves  about  him,  the 
better  are  its  chances  of  escaping  detection,  the  greater 
the  likelihood  that  it  may  elude  its  enemies  and  live  out 
its  days,  leaving  descendants  to  inherit  its  peculiarities. 
Not  so  with  the  northern  species.  The  nearer  it  is  in 
winter  to  the  colour  of  the  snow,  the  less  likely  it  is  to 
fall  a  prey  to  carnivorous  animals  or  birds.  And  so  for 
ages  in  the  northern  winter  the  action  of  competition  in 


THE   KINSHIP   OF   LIFE.  25 

Nature,  of  "natural  selection,"  has  saved  the  whiter 
rabbits  and  condemned  the  darker  ones  to  destruction. 
In  the  summer  these  conditions  are  changed ;  those  in- 
dividuals who  retain  the  ancestral  gray  are  then  the 
ones  best  fitted  to  live.  And  so  after  many  centuries, 
as  we  may  conceive,  there  has  come  about  a  gradual 
change  in  the  fur  of  our  hares,  until  now  in  the  northern 
species  the  fur  is  white  in  winter,  while  all  are  alike 
gray  or  brown  in  the  summer. 

Precisely  similar  is  the  change  in  the  plumage  of  the 
arctic  partridge,  or  ptarmigan,  as  well  as  in  the  various 
other  northern  birds.  But  this  is  not  all.  A  change  in 
colour  such  as  enables  the  hare  or  the  ptarmigan  to  evade 
its  pursuers  would  also  aid  these  pursuers  to  steal  un- 
aware on  their  prey.  Nature  has  no  preferences,  and 
helps  alike  victim  and  victor.  And  so  it  comes  about 
that  predatory  weasels  and  owls  in  winter  assume  a 
snow-white  garb,  and  that  this  is  laid  aside  in  the  sum- 
mer. It  is  doubtless  true  that  other  influences  co-oper- 
ate in  producing  these  changes  in  colour.  White  fur  is 
warmest  in  cold  weather,  for  it  radiates  less  heat.  We 
may  say  that  all  these  animals  are  dressed  in  white  in 
winter  to  keep  them  warm.  But  this  again  would  be  sim- 
ply a  phase  of  "  natural  selection."  If  the  animals  suffer 
from  cold,  the  dark  ones  will  be  chilled  first.  Thus  in 
more  ways  than  one  the  white  animal  has  the  advantage 
of  the  other  in  the  winter.  This  advantage  enables  it 
to  outlive  the  other.  It  causes  its  descendants  to  outlive 
and  eventually  to  displace  those  of  its  darker  rival. 

To  such  causes  as  these  we  must  ascribe  the  nice 
adjustment  of  each  species  to  its  surroundings.  If  a 
species  or  a  group  of  individuals  can  not  adapt  them- 
selves to  their  environment,  they  will  be  crowded  out  by 
others  who  can  do  so.  The  former  will  disappear  en- 
tirely from  the  earth,  or  else  they  will  be  limited  to 


26  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

surroundings  in  which  they  come  into  perfect  adjust- 
ment. A  partial  adjustment  must  with  time  become  a 
complete  one,  for  the  individuals  not  adapted  will  be 
exterminated  in  the  struggle  for  life. 

Everywhere   in    Nature   there   is   the   closest  adap- 
tation of  life  to  its  conditions.      But  this  adaptation 

must  come  about  through  the  survival 
How  selection  of  those  organjsms  fittest  to  live  under 
becomes  adap-  . 

these  conditions,  while  the  unnt  die  out 

and  leave  no  progeny.  Thus,  in  the 
words  of  Professor  Bergen,  "  with  much  the  same  result 
as  that  which  the  farmer  obtains  by  selecting  his  seed 
corn,  the  gardener  by  thinning  out  his  beds,  or  the 
cattle-raiser  by  selling  off  his  roughest  calves  for  veal, 
Nature  is  at  work  on  an  inconceivably  great  scale,  thin- 
ning out  the  least  perfect  individuals  of  each  species." 

But  the  thinning-out  process   is   not  the  whole  of 
"  natural  selection."     Other  influences  work  in  connec- 
tion with  this.     In   the  higher   animals 
Acceleration  of       changes  may   be  wrought   by  conscious 
development.  /  J 

or  unconscious  effort  on  the  part  of  the 

creatures  themselves,  and  the  power  to  put  forth  such 
effort  may  be  perpetuated  by  "  natural  selection."  Cer- 
tain organisms  may  carry  their  growth  farther  than  their 
ancestors  have  done,  so  that  the  completed  structures 
of  their  ancestors  would  be  with  them  only  a  stage  of 
development.  And,  as  Professor  Cope  has  shown,  devel- 
opment may  be  hastened  by  the  abridgment  or  omis- 
sion of  useless  stages.  Thus  the  ultimate  maturity  of 
the  animal  may  be  carried  to  a  degree  of  specialization 
beyond  that  of  its  ancestry.  If  this  "accelerated  de- 
velopment "  be  for  the  gain  of  the  species,  "  natural 
selection  "  will  cause  it  to  be  retained.  We  may  prop- 
erly include  under  "natural  selection  "all  those  changes 
which  come  from  the  special  use  or  disuse  of  any  part 


THE   KINSHIP   OF   LIFE.  2/ 

of  the  structure.  For  "  natural  selection  "  must,  in  a 
way,  be  operative  among  the  organs  of  the  body.  "  Die 
Kampf  der  Theile,"  as  it  has  been  called  by  a  German 
writer  ("  the  battle  of  the  parts  "),  is  a  real  struggle  in 
which  fitness  determines  survival. 

It  is  not  merely  the  simple  structures  and  the  com- 
mon instincts  which  may  be  developed  and  fixed  by 
natural  selection. 

The  differentiation  of  the  sexes  is  a  result  of  the 
demand  for  greater  variation.     It  is  the  fact  of  bisexual 
parentage  that  makes  of  each  individual 
How  bisexual        not  sjmpiv  an  «  elongation  or  continu- 
parentage  brings  ,      .  ,,    ,  .... 

variet  ance   of   the   parent,      but   a   new    life 

which  shall  be  the  resultant  of  the  lives 
and  experiences  of  its  ancestors,  a  mosaic  of  the  char- 
acters of  its  parents  and  its  parents'  parentage.     By  the 
fact  of  sex  no  individual  can  be  the  mere  slavish  copy 
of  any  other.     Through  the  operation  of  sex  the  law 
of  heredity  which  is  to  promote  sameness  is  made  sub- 
servient to  the  equal  need  of  the  promotion  of  variety. 
This  idea,  of    the  formation  of   the  mosaic   of   per- 
sonal character  is  the  motive  of  Goethe's 
"Vom  Vater  hab'   famous  poem    Vom  Vater  hab'  ich  die 

ich  die  Statur."  „ 

Statur.* 

*  "  Vom  Vater  hab'  ich  die  Statur, 
Des  Lebens  ernstes  Fuhren  ; 
Vom  Mutterchen  die  Frohnatur 
Und  Lust  zu  fabuliren. 
Urahnherr  war  der  schonsten  Hold, 
Das  spukt  so  hin  und  wieder. 
Urahnfrau  liebte  Schmuck  und  Gold, 
Das  zuckt  wohl  durch  die  Glieder. 
Sind  nun  die  Elemente  nicht 
An  dem  Complex  zu  trennen  ; 
Was  ist  denn  an  dem  ganzen  Wicht 
Original  zu  nennen?" — GOETHE,  Zahme  Xenien,  vi. 


28  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

Again,  the  fact  of  death  has  been  shown  by  Weis- 
mann  to  be  a  simple  necessity  of  the  law  of  natural  se- 
lection.     Creatures   of    one  cell   are  in 

i^th alue  °      a  sense  biol°sical  units ;  they  mav be 

killed  but  they  do  not  die  a  natural 
death.  They  are  wholly  alive  or  else  wholly  dead  :  never 
dying.  They  multiply  by  self-division,  and  this  process 
is  supposably  eternal,  for  natural  death  is  known  only 
among  many-celled  or  colonial  organisms.  It  is  a  ne- 
cessity arising  from  complexity  of  organization.  Com- 
plication and  specialization  of  structure  as  we  know  it 
in  man  and  the  other  many-celled  creatures  is  bought 
at  the  cost  of  mortality.  These  cells  grouped  in  tis- 
sues and  organs  in  one  part  or  another  must  suffer  in 
the  struggle  for  existence.  Every  compound  animal  is 
in  some  part  dead  or  dying.  The  old  and  mutilated 
organisms  cumber  the  way  of  the  young  and  fresh  ones, 
and  by  the  law  of  selection  it  comes  about  that  for  these 
to  die  of  old  age  is  useful  to  the  species.  Those  spe- 
cies in  which  old  age  brings  decay  and  in  which  the  in- 
dividuals perish  naturally  when  they  cease  to  be  self-de- 
pendent are  then  preserved  in  the  struggle  for  existence. 
It  is  common  in  these  days  to  speak  of  altruism  as 
a  means  of  doing  away  with  the  struggle  for  existence 
among  men.  But  altruism  itself  is  only 
Altruism  and  a  hi  hef  Qr  m  advanced  result  of  the 
the  struggle 

for  existence.  Same    struggle-       Those    who    band    to- 

gether win,  be  they  wolves  or  men,  and 
natural  selection  favours  those  qualities  which  make  for 
mutual  advantage.  To  band  together  against  enemies 
or  for  protection  from  the  elements  is  a  most  effective 
way  in  which  the  struggle  for  existence  may  be  carried 
on.  The  law  of  love  is  not  an  abrogation  of  the  law  of 
struggle.  It  represents  a  better  way  to  fight.  The  con- 
quests of  science  are  simply  the  first  results  of  co-opera- 


THE   KINSHIP   OF   LIFE. 


29 


tion.  If  we  "  put  our  heads  together  "  we  may  know  or 
do  everything.  If  we  stand  apart  we  can  do  nothing, 
and  in  the  struggle  for  existence  those  who  can  stand 
shoulder  to  shoulder  loyally  have  the  promise  of  the 
future.  Those  who  can  not  hold  together  find  every 
man's  hand  raised  against  them.  This  principle  holds 
good  whether  applied  to  the  directors  of  a  hospital  or 
to  a  band  of  wolves. 

Whatever  form  the  struggle  for  existence  may  take, 
it  is  a  permanent  factor  in  all  operations  of  life.  Each 
creature  must  take  part  in  a  threefold  struggle — with 
like  forms  of  life,  with  unlike  forms  of  life  or  creatures 
unlike  itself,  and  with  the  conditions  of  life  themselves. 
Each  man  must,  whether  he  will  or  not,  compete  with 
his  neighbours,  must  compete  with  other  creatures,  and 
must  be  judged  by  the  conditions  of  food,  climate,  and 
environment  under  which  life  exists.  Sometimes  one 
element  will  determine,  sometimes  another.  In  the  city 
one  competes  with  his  neighbours,  in  the  jungle  with 
the  beasts,  and  in  the  arctic  with  the  elements  of  cold 
and  storm.  In  a  similar  way  each  animal  has  to  justify 
its  existence.  Co-operation  may  modify  and  dignify  the 
struggle  for  existence  among  men,  but  it  can  not  set  it 
aside.  It  may  change  its  point  of  incidence,  but  it  can 
not  reduce  its  stress.  Were  it  not  for  this  struggle,  which 
calls  out  from  each  generation  its  best  and  strongest  for 
life  purposes,  there  could  be  no  progress  in  life.  With- 
out competition  there  could  be  no  adaptation,  without 
selection  there  would  not  be  a  creature  on  earth  to-day 
higher  than  a  toadstool ! 

It  was  a  favourite  saying  of  Agassiz  that  "  Facts  are 
stupid  things  until  brought  into  connection  with  some 
general  law."  The  law  of  descent,  with  change  through 
"  natural  selection,"  brings  into  organic  connection  a 
host  of  facts  hitherto  isolated.  Each  one  considered  by 


30  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

itself  would  be  without  meaning  or  explanation.     The 
essential  argument  in  favour  of  "  Darwinism  "  is  that  it 
brings  all  biological   facts  into  unison  from  whatever 
field  of  investigation  these  facts  may  be  derived.     How- 
ever much  evolutionists  have  at  times 
Every  fact  has        seemed  to  drift  away  from  Darwin's  con- 
a  meaning.  .  ...  . 

elusions,  it  is  always  the  most  accurate 

research  and  the  sanest  thought  which  come  nearest  the 
opinions  set  forth  in  the  Origin  of  Species.  The  body 
of  facts  has  grown  enormously  year  by  year,  but  the 
conclusions  we  must  accept  are  substantially  those  laid 
down  by  Darwin  himself. 

The  facts  of  "  geographical  distribution,"  for  exam- 
ple, have  a  meaning  to  us  when  we  view  them  as  the 

results  of  centuries  of  the  restlessness 
Geographical  Qf  indiyiduals  Ea(±  ies  of  animal 

distribution. 

or  plant  has  been  subjected  to  the  vari- 
ous influences  implied  in  the  term  "natural  selection," 
and  under  varying  conditions  its  representatives  have 
undergone  many  different  modifications.  Each  species 
may  be  conceived  as  making  each  year  inroads  on  terri- 
tory occupied  by  other  species.  If  these  colonies  are 
able  to  hold  their  own  in  the  struggle  for  possession 
they  will  multiply  in  the  new  conditions  and  the  range 
of  the  species  becomes  widened.  If  the  surroundings 
are  different,  new  species  or  varieties  may  be  formed 
with  time,  and  these  new  forms  may  again  invade  the 
territory  of  the  parent  species.  Again,  colony  after 
colony  of  species  after  species  may  be  destroyed  by 
other  species  or  by  uncongenial  surroundings. 

Only  in  the  most  general  way  can  the  history  of  any 
species  be  traced ;  but,  could  we  know  it  all,  it  would 
be  as  long  and  eventful  a  story  as  the  history  of  the 
colonization  and  settlement  of  North  America  by  immi- 
grants from  Europe.  Each  region  where  animals  or 


THE    KINSHIP   OF   LIFE.  31 

plants  can  live  has  been  thousands  of  times  discovered, 
its  colonization  a  thousand  times  attempted.  In  these 
efforts  there  is  no  co-operation.  Every  individual  is  for 
himself,  every  struggle  a  struggle  for  life  and  death. 
To  each  species  each  member  of  every  other  species  is 
an  alien  and  a  savage. 

The  study  of  geographical  distribution  shows  the  re- 
lations of  creative  processes  to  space.     The  forms  in- 
habiting one  district  are  the  children   of 
Survival  of  the   earlier    inhabitants.      The    survival 

the  existing.  .  . 

of  these  forms  is  due  to  that  which  I 

have  elsewhere  called  the  "  survival  of  the  existing,"  for 
it  is  certain  that  in  any  part  of  the  world  a  totally  dif- 
ferent grouping  of  animals  or  plants  would  have  been 
equally  fitted  to  the  environment.  The  laws  of  geo- 
graphical distribution  may  be  summed  up  thus  :  The 
reason  why  any  given  species  of  animal  or  plant  is 
not  found  in  a  given  district  is  (a)  because  it  could  not 
get  there  from  its  own  habitat,  or  (<£),  being  there,  it 
could  not  maintain  itself  either  in  competition  with 
others  or  from  the  stress  of  environment,  or  else  (c)  it 
has  in  maintaining  itself  become  altered  into  a  distinct 
species. 

In  like  manner  the  facts  of  geological  distribution 
have  a  meaning  when  we  view  them  in  the  light  of  the 
.        _         theory  of  descent.     The  birth,  increase, 
tributfon    '  decline,  and  final  change  or  disappear- 

ance of  species  or  types  in  geological 
history  are  necessary  parts  of  the  Darwinian  theory. 
They  would  be  inexplicable  on  any  other  hypothesis. 
These  changes  represent  the  survival  of  the  fittest  as 
related  to  time.  With  the  lapse  of  time  come  changes 
in  environment,  and  these  changes  produce  correspond- 
ing changes  in  animal  or  plant  life.  But  these  changes 
on  the  earth  and  in  its  life  are  for  the  most  part  gradual 
4 


32  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

ones.  The  evolution  of  the  earth  and  its  life  has  rarely 
been  subject  to  great  leaps  and  catastrophes.  Yet 

epoch-making  events  have   taken  place 
Epoch  making        Qn    the   eanh       guch  changes  in   life   as 

events.  ,  ...  ,    .  ...  , 

the  acquisition    of   lungs,   of  wings,   of 

speech,  are  marked  by  the  increased  rapidity  of  the  pro- 
cesses of  evolution. 

Professor  Bergen  says:  "Until  an  evolutionary  rise 
of  species  had  been  assigned  as  an  explanation  of  the 
succession  of  higher  and  higher  animals  and  plants 
throughout  the  geological  ages,  what  adequate  reason 
for  this  progress  of  life  could  be  given  ?  Strike  out 
from  our  present  conception  of  the  organic  world,  class 
after  class,  all  notion  of  actual  relationship  by  descent, 
and  what  have  we  left  but  a  mighty  host  of  extinct 
creatures  whose  rise,  progress,  and  disappearance  are 
far  more  unaccountable  than  that  of  the  genii  in  the 
Arabian  Nights  ? " 

But  not  all  change  has  been  progress.     The  idea  of 
some  of  the  earlier  evolutionists  that  the  advance  of 
life  has  been  the  simple  result  of  an  in- 
Changenot  nate    „  uniform   tendency    toward    pro- 

progress.  „  J . 

gression     can  not  be  maintained.     For 

progress,  while  general,  is  by  no  means  uniform  or  uni- 
versal. Progress  ceases  when  its  direct  cause  ceases. 
In  every  group  there  are  some  members  characterized 
by  degeneration  and  loss  of  specialization.  This  is  in- 
volved in  the  theory  of  "  natural  selection."  If  prog- 
ress comes  through  competition,  lack  of  competition 
would  imply  retrogression.  When  animals  or  plants  are 
withdrawn  from  the  stress  of  life  to  some  protected  con- 
dition, the  character  of  the  type  is  lowered.  There  is 
less  need  for  specialization  when  the  range  of  wants  is 
narrowed.  Hence  it  is  that  all  parasitic  animals  or 
plants — lice,  leeches,  dodders,  mistletoe,  Indian  pipe — are 


THE   KINSHIP   OF   LIFE. 


33 


degenerate  forms.  So  it  is  with  cave  animals,  as  well  as 
with  most  organisms  of  the  deep  sea  or  the  far  North. 
All  forms  which  are  withdrawn  from  open  competition 
to  a  solitary  and  secluded  life  lose  one  by  one  the  ad- 
vantages which  competition  has  gained  for  them,  and 
are  known  as  degenerate  types.  What  is  true  of  the 
lower  animals  is  likewise  true  of  man.  The  highest 
type  of  manhood,  of  human  powers  and  human  virtues, 
will  come  from  victory  in  the  struggle  for  existence  and 
not  from  withdrawal  from  the  struggle.  Easy  living 
always  brings  degeneration.  The  sheltered  life  is  the 
source  of  weakness.  The  desire  to  get  something  for 
nothing  is  the  bane  of  human  society. 

Parallel   with  the  case   of  general  degeneration  of 
type  is  that  of  the  degeneration  of  individual  parts  of  the 

organism.     An  organ  well  developed  in 
Vestigial  organs.  ... 

one  group  of  animals  or  plants  may  in 

some  other  be  reduced  to  an  imperfect  organ  or  rudi- 
ment so  small  or  incomplete  as  not  to  perform  its  nor- 
mal function,  or,  indeed,  to  serve  any  purpose  whatever. 
Such  rudimentary  or  functionless  structures  may  be 
found  in  the  body  of  any  of  the  higher  animals  and  in 
most  or  all  of  the  higher  plants.  The  appendix  vermi- 
formis  and  the  unused  muscles  of  the  ears  in  man  are 
examples.  Such  are  also  the  atrophied  lung,  pelvis,  and 
limbs  of  the  snake,  the  "thumb"  of  the  bird,  the  splint 
bone  of  the  horse,  and  the  like,  without  mentioning  less 
familiar  internal  organs.  By  the  theory  of  descent  we 
may  understand  how  much  structures  may  be  retained 
by  the  action  of  the  law  of  heredity,  while  their  reduc- 
tion may  be  the  result  of  long-continued  disuse,  or  the 
growth  and  selection  of  other  organs  at  the  expense  of 
these  which  are  no  longer  needed. 

Among  a  multitude  of  examples  I  need  refer  espe- 
cially  to    but    one — a   recent    discovery   in    homology. 


34 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


FlG.  I. — Pineal  body  in  the  liz- 
ard (Ilatteria)  developed  as 
rudimentary  eye  ;  p,  pineal 
eye.  After  Spencer. 


Within  the  brain  of  man,  resting  on  the  optic  lobes,  is  a 
little  roundish  structure  scarcely  larger  than  a  pea, 
known  as  the  pineal  "  gland  "  or  "  conari- 
1  eye'  urn."  It  has  no  evident  purpose  or 
function,  and  a  philosopher 
once  suggested  that  it  might 
be  the  seat  of  the  soul.  It 
is  larger  in  the  embryo,  and 
still  larger  in  the  brains  of 
some  of  the  lower  vertebrates. 
Recent  investigations  have 
shown  that  it  is  especially  de- 
veloped in  certain  lizards,  and  that  in  them  it  ends  in  a 
more  or  less  perfect  eye,  which  is  placed  between  the 

others  in  the  centre  of 
the  forehead.  These 
lizards  have  in  fact 
three  eyes,  and  the  pi- 
neal body  is  the  optic 
nerve  of  the  third.  In 
the  common  horned 
toad  the  pearl  -  like 
scale  above  the  pineal 
eye  can  be  readily  rec- 
ognised. The  shrunk- 
en rudiment  found  in 
man  is  therefore  what 
is  left  of  an  ancestral 
third  eye,  probably 
once  characteristic  of 
vertebrates,  but  now 
displaced  and  de- 
stroyed by  the  increased  development  and  greater  per- 
fection of  the  outer  pair.  By  the  theory  of  descent  the 
presence  of  the  pineal  body  in  man  is  a  simple  result 


THE   KINSHIP   OF   LIFE. 


35 


of  heredity.     If,  however,  man  possessed  no  "  blood  re- 
lationship "  to  three-eyed  vertebrates,  the  existence  of 


FlG.  3. — Head  of  the  lizard,  or  "  horned  toad  "  (Phrynosoma  blani- 
villei],  showing  the  translucent  pearly  scale  covering  the  pineal  eye. 
From  Nature,  by  W.  S.  Atkinson. 

the  pineal  body  in  the  human  brain  would  be  wholly 
inexplicable. 

It  has  been  difficult  to  explain,  on  the  theory  of  de- 
scent, how  complex  organs  like  the  eyes  and  ears  of  the 
higher  animals  could  develop  from  small 
beginnings.  To  embryology  we  must 
look  for  explanation.  Embryology  tells 
us  that  these  organs  do  not  in  the  individual  reach  per- 
fection "all  at  once."  In  every  case  the  embryonic  his- 
tory of  a  highly  specialized  organ  shows  a  succession  of 


Origin  of  com- 
plex structures. 


36  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

stages  of  incompleteness  before  the  organ  is  finished. 
Each  of  these  stages  finds  a  more  or  less  perfect  repre- 
sentation in  the  adult  condition  of  some  animal  of  less 
complexity.  The  long-continued  "  survival  of  the  fittest  " 
brings  these  organs  to  a  greater  and  greater  perfection. 
But  by  the  side  of  these  creatures  with  the  most  complex 
organs  will  be  found  those  in  which  the  development  of 
some  particular  part  may  be  less  and  less  complete. 
An  organ  highly  developed  in  one  animal  may  be  quite 
rudimentary  and  imperfect  in  some  other  animal  whose 
superior  fitness  may  be  in  some  other  direction.  Thus 
fitness  for  underground  life  relieves  the  mole  from  the 
need  of  good  eyes.  Skill  to  live  by  his  wits  relieves 
man  from  the  need  of  the  monkey's  power  to  climb 
trees.  Somewhere  in  the  animal  kingdom  we  may  find 
each  degree  of  each  organ's  development.  These  or- 
gans in  their  varying  degrees  of  complexity  corre- 
spond more  or  less  perfectly  to  the 
The  individual  several  stages  of  development  of  the 
repeats  the  his-  game  ^  .^  thg  jn(]ividual  of  the 


tory  of  the  race. 

highest  type.     The  record  of  the  devel- 

opment of  the  individual  is  in  a  way  the  recapitulation 
of  the  past  history  of  its  species.  "  The  physical  life  of 
the  individual  is  an  epitome  of  the  history  of  the  group 
to  which  it  belongs."  Thus  the  embryonic  life  of  man 
corresponds,  so  far  as  we  can  trace  it,  to  the  history  of 
that  branch  of  the  group  of  vertebrates  which  has  cul- 
minated in  man.  Each  individual  lives  over  again  the 
life  of  the  race.  "  Under  each  grave  lies  a  world  his- 
tory,"* says  a  German  proverb.  This  fact  is,  however, 
no  mysterious  or  meaningless  law.  It  is  simply  a  natural 
result  of  the  processes  of  heredity.  Heredity  repeats 
that  which  has  been,  and  natural  selection  suppresses 

*  "  Unter  jedem  Grab  liegt  eine  Weltgeschichte." 


THE   KINSHIP   OF    LIFE. 


37 


that  which  is  injurious.  The  process  of  development 
of  any  individual  is  that  of  its  ancestors  with  the  harm- 
ful stages  abbreviated  or  suppressed.  The  young  frog 
has  the  ancestral  gill  of  the  fish  and  so  has  the  human 
child  in  embryo.  This  stage  is  useful  to  the  frog ;  it  is 
not  harmful  to  the  unborn  child.  It  is  thus  retained  by 
heredity,  but  its  retention  is  always  governed  by  its  pos- 
sible harmfulness. 

It  is  not  an  easy  task  to  put  in  a  few  words  and  popu- 
lar language  even  a  hint  of  the  wealth  of  evidence  which 
embryology  brings  to  the  support  of  the 
Embryology  and    th  Q£  eyolution       This  evidence  was 

evolution.  .»»._»,         •    ,        •     ,     , 

in  Mr.  Darwin  s  mind  the  most  convinc- 
ing of  all  evidence,  its  force  being  even  stronger  than 
that  derived  from  his  own  studies  in  geographical  and 
geological  distribution.  In  this  connection  the  follow- 
ing paragraphs  have  been  contributed  by  Dr.  John  Ster- 
ling Kingsley : 

"  To  appreciate  the  weight  and  extent  of  embryo- 
logical  evidence,  one  needs  the  special  training  of  the 
biological  laboratory,  for  it  is  only  by  watching  the  won- 
derful changes  which  every  egg  goes  through  in  its  de- 
velopment that  one  can  begin  to  realize  the  importance 
of  the  facts.  The  training  of  the  metaphysician  is  here 
of  no  value,  for  it  is  not  of  the  slightest  avail  in  weigh- 
ing the  evidence. 

"  To  state  this  evidence  briefly,  we  may  state  that  the 
history  of  every  developing  egg  and  embryo  is  utterly 
incapable  of  explanation  from  any  other  standpoint 
than  that  of  evolution.  Why  should  the  young  verte- 
brate have  kidneys  like  those  of  worms  ?  Why  does 
man  have  muscles  to  move  the  ears  ?  Why  do  young 
spiders  develop  legs  which  will  utterly  disappear  in  the 
adult  ?  Why  does  the  nervous  system  communicate 
with  the  alimentary  canal  in  the  young  frog  or  bird  ? 


38  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

All  of  these  questions,  and  thousands  more  which  will 
suggest  themselves  at  once  to  every  student  of  embry- 
ology, are  problems  which  receive  no  adequate  explana- 
tion on  the  supposition  of  special  creations.  With  the 
theory  of  evolution  as  a  basis,  the  answers  are  easy. 
They  are  inheritances  from  ancestral  conditions.  In 
the  terms  of  evolution  they  remain  because  the  history 
of  the  individual  is  a  more  or  less  detailed  recapitula- 
tion of  the  history  of  the  race. 

"  The  truth  of  this  assumption  is  easily  tested.  The 
conclusions  of  embryology  must  be  in  full  accord  with 
those  of  geology,  or  one  or  the  other  must  be  wrong. 
In  the  rocks  we  have  an  indisputable  record  of  the  suc- 
cession of  the  forms  of  life,  and  the  conclusions  of  em- 
bryology must  point  to  a  similar  succession. 

"While  neither  our  limits  nor  the  character  of  the 
present  article  will  allow  anything  like  a  discussion  of 
the  embryological  evidence  in  support  of  evolution,  a 
few  examples  will  serve  to  indicate  its  character. 

"  In  the  development  of  all  eggs  the  earlier  stages 

are  essentially  alike,  or  easily  reducible  to  a  common 

type.     It  is  only  in  the  later  stages  that 

Similarity  of          the  varjations  occur  that  are  to  convert 

early  stages  in  . 

embryonic  life.  °ne  e^  int°  a  fish'  another  mto  a 
chicken.  There  are,  it  is  true,  minor 
differences  from  the  start,  but  these  are  largely  to  be 
explained  on  mechanical  grounds.  An  egg  differs  from 
the  other  cells  in  the  tissues  of  the  parent  chiefly  in  its 
capacity  to  reproduce  the  species.  It  divides  again  and 
again,  and  the  resulting  cells  build  anew  the  parent 
form,  but  in  the  character  of  this  division  or  '  segmenta- 
tion '  many  variations  are  recognised.  In  some  the 
eggs  are  small  and  composed  entirely  of  protoplasm, 
and  here  the  segmentation  is  regular,  but  other  eggs  are 
larger,  and  this  increase  in  size  is  due  to  the  addition  of 


THE   KINSHIP   OF   LIFE. 


39 


a  larger  amount  of  'food  yolk  '  stored  up  to  supply  the 
wants  of  the  growing  embryo  till  the  time  comes  when 
it  shall  be  able  to  shift  for  itself.  Protoplasm  is  active, 
'  food  yolk '  passive,  and  the  relative  amounts  of  these 
two  and  the  positions  which  they  occupy  in  the  egg 
affect,  in  a  purely  mechanical  manner,  the  segmentation, 
and  interfere  with  or  destroy  its  typical  regularity.  In 
the  egg  of  the  common  hen  this  '  food  yolk '  forms 
almost  the  whole  of  the  yolk,  the  really  important  pro- 
toplasm occurring  only  in  the  lighter  yellow  spot,  which 
is  always  uppermost  in  the  egg.  Taking  it  for  granted 
that  this  amount  of  food  yolk  influences  the  character 
of  the  early  stages  of  development  (a  point  easily  proved 
by  the  embryologists),  let  us  consider  a  special  case  in 
which  conclusions  drawn  from  development  have  re- 
ceived later  confirmation  from  other  sources. 

"  In  the  mammals  the  eggs  are  very  small  and  con- 
sist of  pure  protoplasm,  food  yolk  being  entirely  absent. 

Indeed,  nourished  by  the  mother,  as  the 
The  egg  of  the  Qf  most  Q£   these   formg  nQ 

mammal.  . 

store  of  food  yolk  is  necessary.     Hence, 

on  a  priori  grounds,  one  would  say  that  the  segmenta- 
tion of  the  mammalian  egg  would  be  regular  in  its  char- 
acter. When,  however,  naturalists  came  to  study  the 
development  of  the  mammalian  egg,  it  was  found  that 
in  its  early  stages  it  presented  (in  eggs  without  food 
yolk)  some  astonishing  peculiarities.  How  to  explain 
these  peculiarities  was  a  problem.  If,  however,  it  were 
assumed  that  the  mammals  have  descended  from  forms 
with  larger  eggs,  and  that  in  the  course  of  evolution 
they  have  lost  the  yolk  but  had  retained  the  tendencies 
of  development,  the  explanation  were  easy.  This  ex- 
planation, however,  seemed  very  improbable,  for  it  had 
been  held,  on  grounds  of  structure,  that  the  mammals 
must  have  descended  from  the  batrachia,  a  group  con- 


4o  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

taining  the  frogs  and  salamanders,  in  which  the  eggs  are 
not  large  enough  to  serve  the  conditions  of  the  problem. 
So  the  matter  was  allowed  to  rest  until  new  evidence 
should  be  found.  It  came  in  1864.  In  that  year  Pro- 
fessor Cope  found  the  remains  of  certain  reptiles  in  the 
rocks  of  Texas  which  he,  not  being  aware  of  the  em- 
bryological  problem,  stated  must  be  regarded  as  the* 
ancestors  of  both  birds  and  mammals.  His  evidence 
was  solely  derived  from  the  bony  structure.  As  all 
reptiles  have  eggs  in  which  there  is  a  large  amount  of 
food  yolk,  this  discovery  answered  all  the  requirements 
of  the  problem.  Both  embryology  and  geology  were  in 
full  accord.  But  the  end  was  not  yet.  In  the  same 
year,  and  a  few  weeks  later,  Caldwell  and  Haacke  dis- 
covered that  two  of  the  species  of  monotremes,  those 
wonderful  bird-like  mammals  for  which  Australia  is 
noted — the  duckbill  and  the  spiny  ant-eater — do  not 
nourish  their  embryos  like  other  mammals,  but  that 
they,  like  birds,  lay  eggs.  It  was  found,  further,  that 
these  eggs  are  large;  they  contain  a  large  amount  of 
food  yolk,  and  they  develop  at  first  in  the  same  way  as 
the  eggs  of  reptiles.  Here  was  additional  confirmation 
of  the  embryological  conclusions. 

"  There  are  many  other  features  in  the  development 
of  the  mammals  which  are  equally  wonderful  and  con- 
clusive of   the  truth  of   the   theory  of 
Embryonic  evolution.     According  to  the  geological 

structures  in 
man  record,  man   must   be   descended   from 

mammals  with  tails.  We  find  that  in 
the  early  stages  of  the  embryo  of  man  there  is  a  time 
when  there  exists  a  regular  tail  supported  by  eight  dis- 
tinct bones,  like  the  tail  bones  of  any  other  mammal. 
With  growth,  however,  these  bones  unite  and  all  disap- 
pear except  three,  which,  joined  in  one,  persist  in  the 
adult.  On  the  theory  of  evolution  this  tail  is  easily  ex- 


THE   KINSHIP   OF   LIFE.  4! 

plained  ;  special  creation  can  not  account  for  it.  Going 
still  further  back  in  the  history  of  the  development  of 
the  mammals,  the  record  shows  that  both  these  and  the 

reptiles  must  have  arisen  from  fish-like 
Gill  slits  in  man.    ,  i  •    L    i_          i_    j  u 

forms  which  breathed  water  by  means 

of  gills.  To  this  embryology  offers  ample  support.  In 
the  embryos  of  reptiles,  birds,  and  mammals,  soon  after 
the  heart  is  formed,  there  appear  on  the  sides  of  the 
neck  openings  which  in  both  origin  and  structure  re- 
semble the  gill  arches  of  fishes,  and  through  these  gills 
the  blood  flows  exactly  as  it  does  in  the  fish.  Later  the 
gill  arches  close  up,  the  blood  takes  other  courses,  and 
of  all  the  complicated  apparatus  which  persists  through- 
out life  in  the  fish  there  remain  only  a  few  obscure 
traces  in  the  adult  reptile,  bird,  or  mammal." 

This  fact  must  show  that  the  higher  mammals  have 
had  a  water-breathing,  fish-like  ancestry.  Only  the  force 
of  heredity  can  explain  the  existence  and  retention  of 
these  structures.  On  any  other  supposition  an  explana- 
tion is  inconceivable. 

Dr.  Kingsley  further  says  :  "  These  examples  are  but 
a  tithe  of  the  evidence;  thousands  of  pages  might  be 
written  detailing  similar  facts  not  only  in  connection 
with  the  embryology  of  the  vertebrates  but  of  all  groups 
of  animals  and  plants.  Every  case  would  lead  us  to  the 
same  conclusions,  but  except  for  the  special  student  of 
biology  they  would  have  but  little  interest.  Each  in- 
stance would  be  inexplicable  except  upon  an  evolu- 
tionary basis,  but,  if  one  adopt  the  hypothesis  that  the 
history  of  the  individual  is  an  epitome  of  that  of  the 
race,  all  is  at  once  as  clear  as  day.  Special  creation  is 
utterly  inadequate  to  explain  embryological  problems  ; 
evolution  leaves  no  room  for  doubt  or  question." 

The  difficulties  and  objections  to  the  theory  of  de- 
scent will  be  found  in  the  Origin  of  Species,  stated  by 


42  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

Darwin   himself  with  a  fullness,  fairness,  and  clearness 
which  none  of  his  opponents  has  been   able  to  reach. 

Increasing  knowledge  has  steadily  di- 
Objectionsto  minished  the  apparent  value  of  these 
the  theory  of  .  .,,  - 

descent  objections.     None  of  them  can  now  be 

regarded  as  of  any  serious  importance. 
Our  chief  questions  as  to  the  origin  of  species  relate  to 
the  relative  importance  of  the  various  elements  which 
enter  into  "natural  selection,"  to  a  better  definition  of 
the  laws  of  variation,  and  especially  to  the  existence  of 
a  possible  unknown  factor  in  evolution  which  causes  the 
transmission  of  the  results  of  the  efforts  and  experiences 
of  the  individual. 

Just  now  evolutionists  are  nearly  equally  divided  on 
this  great  question,  on  which  even  their  conventional 

beliefs  have  been  lately  rudely  shaken. 
Relation  of  pres-  ^re  acquired  characters  ever  inherited, 
ent  heredity  to  and  Jf  under  what  conditions  and 

past  environ-  ....          .       T        .  .  ... 

limitations  ?  Is  the  experience  of  the 
ment.  _  • 

parent  part  of  the  heritage  of  the  child  ? 
Does  the  environment  of  the  father  enter  into  the  hered- 
ity of  the  son  ?  Are  the  reactions  which  follow  the 
various  external  conditions  restricted  to  the  individual 
alone,  and  is  the  next  generation  untouched  by  its  par- 
ents' successes  or  failures,  as  though  it  were  a  new 
creation  ? 

To  ask  these  questions  is  not  to  answer  them,  and 
and  the  final  solution  of  the  relation  of  present  heredity 
to  past  environment  will  be  the  work  of  the  student  of 
the  twentieth  century. 

Darwin's  work  was  addressed  at  first  only  to  natural- 
ists, with  no  expectation  that  the  public  would  pay  any 
attention  to  it.  He  had  confidence  that 
Darwin's  hope.  the  yOunger  and  more  observant  of  his 

fellow  workers  would  find  in  their  own  work  confirma- 


THE   KINSHIP   OF    LIFE. 


43 


tion  of  his  conclusions.  The  times  were  riper  than  he 
had  realized.  He  has  outlived  nearly  all  his  scientific 
opponents,  the  greatest  and  perhaps  the  last  of  whom 
was  Agassiz.  To-day  there  is  not  one  whose  scien- 
tific studies  have  been  such  as  to  give  him  a  right 
to  speak,  whose  views  are  not  in  substantial  accord 
with  those  of  the  Origin  of  Species.  Darwin's  work 
has  destroyed  forever  the  closet-formed  idea  of  a  "spe- 
cies" in  biology  as  something  fundamentally  different 
from  a  variety  or  a  race. 

Let  me  take  an  illustration.     Camille 
The  species  of        Dareste>    writing    of    the    hundred    or 
more   alleged   species   of   the   true    eel 
(Angut'/ta),  says : 

"  There  are  at  least  four  distinct  types,  resulting 
from  the  combination  of  a  certain  number  of  characters ; 
but  the  study  of  a  very  large  number  of  specimens  be- 
longing to  these  four  specific  types  has  convinced  me 
that  each  of  these  characters  may  vary  independently, 
and  that,  consequently,  certain  individuals  exhibit  a  com- 
bination of  characters  belonging  to  two  distinct  types. 
It  is  therefore  possible  to  establish  clearly  defined  bar- 
riers separating  these  two  types.  The  genus  Anguilla 
exhibits,  then,  a  phenomenon  which  is  found  in  many 
other  genera,  and  even  in  the  genus  Homo  itself,  and 
which  can  be  explained  in  only  two  ways :  Either  these 
four  forms  have  had  a  common  origin  and  are  races 
merely,  and  not  species ;  or  else  they  are  distinct  in 
origin  and  are  true  species,  but  have  been  more  or  less 
commingled,  and  have  produced  by  their  mingling  inter- 
mediate forms,  which  co-exist  with  those  which  are 
primitive.  Science  is  not  in  the  position  to  decide  be- 
tween these  two  alternatives." 

It  is  on  idle  problems  like  this  as  to  the  reality  of 
species  that  the  strength  of  the  naturalists  of  the  past 


44  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

century  has  been  largely  wasted.  Which  of  the  forms  we 
study  are  species,  and  therefore  represent  separate  acts 
of  the  Creator,  and  which  are  mere  varieties,  chance 
products  of  varying  surroundings,  and 
Secies*"1  therefore  to  be  despised  and  ignored? 

Scarcely  ever  did  two  earnest  students 
of  any  group  reach  an  agreement  as  to  this  question,  for 
agreement  is  only  possible  when  material  is  lacking.  A 
single  additional  specimen  often  unsettles  every  conclu- 
sion, and  the  contents  of  all  the  museums  are  but  the 
slightest  fragment  of  the  life  of  the  globe.  "  We  can 
only  predicate  and  define  species  at  all,"  says  Dr.  Coues, 
"  from  the  mere  circumstance  of  missing  links.  Our 
species  are  twigs  of  a  tree  separated  from  the  parent 
stem.  We  name  and  arrange  them  arbitrarily  in  default 
of  means  of  reconstructing  the  whole  tree  in  accordance 
with  Nature's  ramifications."  Among  Dareste's  eels  we 
may  have  one  species,  or  four,  or  forty,  as  our  collection 
may  be  deficient  in  connecting  forms,  or  as  we  may 
choose  to  magnify  or  disregard  slight  differences.  There 
are  just  as  many  kinds  of  eels  as  there  are  races  of  men 
or  of  dogs.  Future  naturalists  will  again  describe  those 
eels;  but  they  will  know  them  for  what  they  are — the 
varying  descendants  of  some  one  degenerated  type  of 
fishes,  crawling  in  the  weeds  and  ooze  of  many  seas 
and  rivers,  and  thus  variously  modified  by  their  sur- 
roundings. 

Meanwhile  the  old  notion   of  a  species  has  passed 
away  forever.     We  can  no  more  return  to  it  than  as- 
tronomers can  return  to  the  Ptolemaic 
The  old  idea  of       notion   Qf  th(,  solar  g         m       The  same 
species  has  .  . 

assed  away          lesson  comes  up  from  every  hand.     It  is 

the  common  experience  of  all  students 
of  species.  I  do  not  know  of  a  single  naturalist  in  the 
world  who  has  made  a  thoughtful  study  of  the  relations 


THE    KINSHIP   OF   LIFE. 


45 


of  species  in  any  group  who  entertains  the  old  notion 
as  to  their  distinct  origin.  There  is  not  one  who  could 
hold  this  view  and  look  an  animal  in  the  face ! 

And  for  this  change  we  have  to  thank  Darwin.  "  It 
is  easy  to  plough  where  the  field  is  cleared,"  and  what 
he  first  of  all  saw  clearly  we  can  not  fail  to  see  now. 
The  fact  is  that  every  student  of  species  and  of  the 
facts  of  geographical  distribution  has  reached,  willingly 
or  unwillingly,  the  conclusion  that  species  are  not  im- 
mutable;  that  those  differences  by  which  he  tried  to 
discriminate  the  groups  of  organisms  which  he  calls  spe- 
cies were  not  differences  originating  in  the  act  of  crea- 
tion, but  produced  in  some  way  by  outside  influences 
or  by  the  organism's  reaction  in  adjustment  to  these  in- 
fluences. One  might  safely  pledge  himself  to  convert 
to  some  phase  of  the  development  theory  any  honest 
and  intelligent  man  who  would  spend  a  month  in  a  care- 
ful study  of  a  large  collection  of  specimens  in  any  group 
in  which  the  existing  species  are  found  over  wide  areas 
on  the  surface  of  the  earth.  The  study  of  squirrels, 
eels,  catfishes,  pine  trees,  asters,  butterflies,  clams,  snails, 
horses,  or  men — any  of  these  will  serve  to  accomplish 
this  purpose. 

The  general  acceptance  of  the  Darwinian  theory  by 
naturalists  is  not  due  exclusively  to  the  Origin  of  Spe- 
cies or  to   any  of  the  numerous  com- 
The  acceptance       mentaries    and    expositions    which    have 
of  the  theory  , r  . 

of  descent  come  from  other  hands.     It  arises  from 

the  results  of  the  studies  themselves. 
No  authority  has  compelled  it,  for  Darwin's  influence 
was  not,  like  that  of  Cuvier  or  of  Agassiz,  the  force  of  an 
overmastering  personality.  He  was  rather  the  voice  of 
Nature.  His  word  was  the  impersonal  word  of  Nature 
herself.  To  see  truthfully  is  to  see  with  Darwin's  eyes. 
The  idea  of  development  gives  the  only  clew  by  which 


46  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

the  naturalist  can  be  guided  in  his  work.  If  the  affini- 
ties of  species  are  not  related  to  the  law  of  heredity 
they  are  unintelligible.  If  the  variation  of  species  is 
really  immutability  in  disguise  we  can  not  trust  our 
senses.  It  is  said,  I  know  not  on  what  authority,  that 
the  distinguished  ichthyologist,  Albert  Giinther,  was 
converted  to  Darwinism  by  the  study  of  the  British  sal- 
mon. Whether  this  is  true  or  not,  such  a  study  could 
have  no  other  effect.  I  was  brought  to  the  same  be- 
liefs through  a  study  of  the  minnows  and  darters  of  the 
Mississippi  Valley.  In  the  study  of  species  one  must 
choose  between  some  form  of  development  theory  on 
the  one  hand  and  a  hopeless,  unscientific,  impossible 
ignorance  on  the  other ;  and  in  all  forms  of  biological 
investigation,  comparative  anatomy,  morphology,  em- 
bryology, histology,  we  reach  the  same  choice  of  alter- 
natives. 

The  theory  of  descent  by  "  natural  selection  "  has 
become  in  the  hands  of  Herbert  Spencer  a  part  of  a 

general  philosophy  of  evolution,  a  con- 
The  philosophy  ^    rauch    o]der    in    ^    ^    ^ 

of  evolution.  •  .    . 

theory   of   Darwinism.      Manifestly   we 

could  not  imagine  a  homogeneous  universe  or  a  homo- 
geneous earth  which  could  perpetually  retain  a  homo- 
geneous condition.  A  cooling  earth  must  lose  its  per- 
fect rotundity,  its  surface  must  become  diversified,  and 
its  relation  to  the  sun  must  cause  its  equatorial  portion 
to  become  different  from  its  poles.  A  single  homogene- 
ous form  of  life  could  not  remain  single  and  uniform, 
because  life  must  respond  to  the  conditions  of  its  envi- 
ronment. Any  organism  under  a  tropical  sun  is  not 
what  it  would  be,  exposed  to  arctic  cold.  Diversity  once 
begun,  and  a  rate  of  increase  more  rapid  than  a  limited 
earth  could  permit  unchecked,  the  natural  competition 
in  the  struggle  for  existence  accounts  for  the  rest. 


THE   KINSHIP   OF   LIFE. 


47 


The  theory  of  evolution,  in  brief,  is  this  :  There  ex- 
ists in  all  things  a  tendency  to  become  specialized  and 
differentiated.  In  accordance  with  this  tendency  nebu- 
lous masses  have  been  concentrated  into  planets  and  the 
generalized  creatures  of  early  time  have  been  special- 
ized into  distinct  forms.  The  formula  of  the  process  of 
evolution  as  stated  by  Mr.  Spencer  resolves  itself  into 
this:  "Evolution  is  a  change  from  an  indefinite,  inco- 
herent homogeneity  to  a  definite,  coherent  heterogeneity 
through  successive  differentiations  and  integrations." 

That  this  is  true  in  the  world  of  life  is  beyond  ques- 
tion, and  we  have  reason  to  believe  that  something  of 
the  sort  is  true  in  the  world  outside  of  life,  whether  the 
laws  and  forces  in  question  be  in  essential  respects  com- 
parable or  not. 

The  influence  of  the  theory  of  descent  on  all  forms 
of  modern  mental  activity  has  been  great  beyond  com- 
parison. The  thoughts  of  every  student 

thfor^of  °f  haVe  bCen   m°re   °r   1CSS   modified  bv  it- 

descent  ^n  philosophy  as  in  science  the  publica- 

tion of  the  Origin  of  Species  has  been 
the  great  event  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Not  only 
have  all  the  strictly  biological  sciences  undergone  a 
complete  transformation  since  the  year  1859,  but  such 
allied  sciences  as  psychology,  philology,  sociology,  and 
ethics  have  felt  the  same  impulse  and  have  fallen  under 
the  same  influences.  Even  the  organization  of  charities 
in  every  well-ordered  community  is  avowedly  based  on 
the  principles  of  Darwinism. 

The  various  attacks  on  the  theory  of  descent  have 
been  nearly  all  based  on  the  question  of  the  origin  of 

man.     For  the  human  race  is  likewise  a 

Origin  of  man.  .          ..  ,  .         .       .      , 

species  ot  animals,  and  from  its  physical 

side  it  must  be  discussed  with  other  species.     If  we  sup- 
pose that  the  various  forms  of  the  lower  animals  and 

5 


48  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

plants  had  their  origin  in  pre-existing  forms  more  or 
less  different,  we  may  presume  this  to  have  been  true 
of  man  also.  That  it  is  true  of  man  in  fact  we  know, 
for  not  many  thousands  of  years  ago  our  ancestors  in 
Europe  were  barbarians,  cave  dwellers,  lake  dwellers, 
and  dwellers  in  hollow  trees,  using  only  the  rude  imple- 
ments they  shaped  from  metal  and  flint.  The  origin  of 
civilized  man  from  barbarous  man  gives  the  clew  to  the 
origin  of  barbarous  man  from  forms  still  less  specialized. 
The  question  of  the  origin  of  man,  though  perhaps 
the  most  interesting  problem  in  science,  offers  to  the  stu- 
dent of  Nature  peculiar  difficulties.  Materials  for  exact 
knowledge  are  few  and  prejudices  are  strong,  and  all 
tendencies  favour  an  immediate  decision  on  doubtful 
points,  though  the  evidence  be  far  from  sufficient.  Of 
not  one  man,  nor  monkey,  nor  bird,  nor  beast  in  half  a 
million  does  a  trace  remain  after  a  thousand  years — not 
a  bone,  nor  a  relic,  nor  a  thought.  Living  on  the  sur- 
face, we  crumble  into  dust ;  and  the  current  phases  of 
human  life,  a  few  centuries  out  of  hundreds,  are  all  of 
man's  history  we  surely  know.  Many  links  are  missing 
still,  and  most  of  these  we  can  never  find.  Our  early 
ancestry  we  can  best  infer  from  our  knowledge  of  the 
embryonic  history  and  mental  development  of  the  man 
of  to-day. 

But  if  anything  in  science  is  certain,  it  is  that  homol- 
ogy  is  a  fact,  and  that  it  has  a  meaning.  Among  us 
backboned  animals,  all  structures,  all 
functions,  and  all  mental  operations 
show  distinct  homologies.  The  essence 
of  the  development  theory  is  this  :  Homology  is  the 
stamp  of  heredity.  Homology  means  blood  relation- 
ship. No  other  meaning  of  homology  has  ever  been 
shown,  nor  is  there  the  slightest  evidence  that  any  other 
interpretation  is  possible.  Blood  relationship  implies  a 


THE    KINSHIP   OF   LIFE. 


49 


common  action  of  heredity,  and  a  common  heredity  is 
the  only  source  yet  known  for  the  likenesses  we  call 
homology. 

I  resemble  my  neighbour  so  closely  that  people  say 
we  look  like  brothers.  My  little  boy  shows  similar  ex- 
actness of  homology  to  me,  and  people  say  that  he  is 
the  very  image  of  his  father.  My  neighbour  on  the  left 
shows  wider  divergencies,  but  then  he  too  is  evidently 
an  Anglo-Saxon.  Angle  or  Saxon,  we  were  all  of  one 
blood  not  many  centuries  ago.  Still  farther  away  the 
whole  Aryan  race  becomes  one,  and  we  are  willing  in 
Adam  to  recognise  our  homology  even  with  our  poor 
relations — the  Bushman  and  the  Hottentot.  But  still 
poorer  relations  we  have,  and  they  too  carry  on  their 
faces  the  unmistakable  evidences  of  kinship  by  blood. 
In  every  bone  and  muscle  my  dog  shows  his  likeness  to 
me,  and  even  in  every  function  of  his  feeble  little  brain 
the  resemblance  is  apparent.  We  have  no  explanation 
of  such  homologies  other  than  that  of  kinship  by  blood. 
For  this  reason  we  know  that  the  various  races  of  men 
and  the  various  species  of  monkeys  have  some  time  had 
a  common  ancestry.  For  this  reason  we  believe  that  at 
a  period  of  time  far  back  in  the  geological  record  all 
vertebrate  animals  sprang  from  a  common  stock.  We 
have  substantially  the  same  evidence,  differing  only 
slightly  in  degree,  for  believing  that  my  dog  and  my- 
self are  related  by  blood  in  some  form  of  distant  cousin- 
ship,  as  there  is  to  show  a  similar  relationship  between 
myself  and  any  one  of  my  neighbours.  In  neither  case 
can  we  secure  proof  by  appeal  to  history.  Our  records 
go  back  for  a  few  generations  only,  and  the  great  past 
is  lost.  In  either  case  our  acknowledged  kinship  is  only 
an  inference  based  on  known  facts  of  heredity  and 
homology. 

No  two  groups  can  show  homologies  with  each  other 


50  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

more  clearly  than  the  members  of  the  highest  order  of 
mammals.  Either  these  homologies  are  real  and  thus 
show  the  existence  of  a  real  bond  of  union,  or  else  they 
are  mere  mockeries  like  the  face  in  the  pansy  flower. 
If  homologies  are  mockeries,  then  indeed  our  science 
has  made  no  progress,  for  this  was  the  belief  of  the 
middle  ages. 

So  much  for  what  we  know.  Our  objections  to  rec- 
ognising our  kinship  with  the  lower  forms — if  we  have 
any  such  objections — rest  on  considerations  outside  the 
domain  of  knowledge.  They  do  not  rest  on  religious 
grounds.  Those  who  think  so  deceive  themselves. 
"  Secondary  causes,"  as  the  phrase  is  used,  belong  to 
the  province  of  science.  They  are  outside  the  domain 
of  religion.  "  Theology  and  science,"  says  Darwin, 
"  should  each  run  its  own  course.  ...  I  am  not  respon- 
sible if  their  meeting  point  should  still  be  far  off." 

This  is  not  a  question  of  preference  one  way  or 
another.  Personal  preference  has  no  place  in  science. 
Man  was  not  present  at  the  foundation  of  the  world- 
It  is  not  a  question  to  be  decided  one  way  or  another 
by  a  majority  vote.  Truth  cares  nothing  for  majorities, 
and  the  majority  of  one  age  may  be  the  wonder  or  the 
shame  of  the  next. 

The  only  question  is  this  :  Is  it  true  ?  And  if  it  be 
the  truth,  nothing  in  the  universe  can  be  truer.  "  Ex- 
tinguished theologians,"  Huxley  tells  us, 

"lie  about  the  cradle  of  every  science 
scientific  beliefs.  * 

as  the  strangled  snakes  beside  that  of 

the  infant  Hercules."  Looking  along  the  history  of 
human  thought,  we  see  the  attempt  to  fasten  to  Chris- 
tianity each  decaying  belief  in  science.  Every  failing 
scientific  notion  has  claimed  orthodoxy  for  itself.  That 
the  earth  is  round,  that  it  moves  about  the  sun,  that  it  is 
old,  that  granite  ever  was  melted — all  these  beliefs,  now 


THE    KINSHIP   OF   LIFE.  5! 

part  of  our  common  knowledge,  have  been  declared  con- 
trary to  religion,  and  Christian  men  who  knew  these 
things  to  be  true  have  suffered  all  manner  of  evil  for 
their  sake.  We  see  the  hand  of  the  Almighty  in  Nature 
everywhere ;  but  everywhere  he  works  with  law  and 
order.  We  have  found  that  even  comets  have  orbits ; 
that  valleys  were  dug  out  by  water,  and  hills  worn  down 
by  ice ;  and  all  that  we  have  ever  known  to  be  done  on 
earth  has  been  done  in  accordance  with  law. 

Darwin  says :  "  To  my  mind  it  accords  better  with 
what  we  know  of  the  laws  impressed  on  matter  by  the 

Creator,  that  the  production  and  ex- 
Darwin  s  words.  .  .  '  ,  ,  .  ,  , 

tmction  of  the  past  and  present  inhab- 
itants of  the  world  should  have  been  due  to  secondary 
causes,  like  those  determining  the  birth  and  death  of  an 
individual.  When  I  view  all  beings,  not  as  special  crea- 
tions, but  as  lineal  descendants  of  some  few  beings  who 
lived  before  the  first  bed  of  the  Silurian  was  deposited, 
they  seem  to  me  to  become  ennobled. 

"  There  is  a  grandeur  in  this  view  of  life,  with  its 
several  powers  having  been  originally  breathed  by  the 
Creator  into  a  few  forms  or  into  one,  and  that  while 
this  planet  has  gone  cycling  on  according  to  the  fixed 
law  of  gravity,  from  so  simple  a  beginning,  endless  forms 
most  beautiful  and  most  wonderful  have  been  and  are 
being  evolved." 

With  the  growth  of  the  race  has  steadily  grown  our 
conception  of  the  omnipotence  of  God.  Our  ancestors 
felt,  as  many  races  of  men  still  feel,  that 
they  were  forsaken  unless  each  house- 
hold had  a  god  of  its  own,  for,  numer- 
ous as  the  greater  gods  were,  they  were  busy  with 
priests  and  kings.  The  people  could  hardly  believe 
that  the  God  of  their  tribe  could  be  the  God  of  the 
Gentiles  also.  That  he  could  dwell  in  temples  not  made 


52  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

with  hands,  removed  him  from  human  sight.  That 
there  could  be  two  continents  was  deemed  impossible, 
for  one  God  could  not  watch  them  both.  That  the 
earth  was  the  central  and  sole  inhabited  planet  rested 
on  the  same  limited  conception  of  God.  That  the  be- 
ginning of  all  things  was  a  little  while  ago  is  another 
phase  of  the  same  idea,  as  is  the  idea  of  special  creation 
for  every  form  of  animal  and  plant. 

A  Chinese  sage,  whose  words  remain  while  his  name 
is  lost  in  the  ages  between  him  and  us,  has  said:  "  He 
can  not  be  concealed ;  he  will  appear  without  showing 
himself,  effect  renovation  without  moving,  and  create 
perfection  without  acting.  It  is  the  law  of  heaven  and 
earth,  whose  way  is  solid,  substantial,  vast,  and  un- 
changing." 

Not  long  ago  I  walked  across  the  Kentish  fields  to 
Down,  a  pilgrim  to  the,  shrine  of  Darwin.  I  saw  the 

stately  mansion  in  which    he    lived — a 
Darwin  s  home.  , 

great  stone  house  surrounded  by  trees 

and  shut  in  by  an  ivy-covered  wall.  I  talked  with  the  vil- 
lagers of  Down,  the  landlord  of  the  George  Inn,  and  the 
working  people  who  had  been  his  neighbours  all  their 
lives,  and  to  whom  Charles  Darwin  was  not  the  world- 
renowned  investigator,  but  the  kindly  friend.  His  love 
for  his  wife  and  family,  his  love  for  flowers  and  birds 
and  trees,  his  love  for  all  things  true  and  beautiful — all 
this  forms  the  fair  background  before  which  rises  the 
noblest  work  in  science. 

Forty  years  ago  obloquy  and  derision  were  heaped 
upon  the  name  of  Darwin  from  all  sides,  sometimes  even 
from  his  scientific  associates.  He  outlived  it  all,  and 
when  he  died  his  mother  country  paid  him  the  highest 
tribute  in  her  power.  He  lies  in  Westminster  Abbey,  by 
the  side  of  Isaac  Newton,  one  of  the  noblest  of  the  long 
line  of  men  of  science  whose  lives  have  made  his  own 


THE   KINSHIP   OF   LIFE. 


53 


life  possible.     For  every  truth  that  is  won  for  humanity 
takes  the  life  of  a  man. 

Among  all  who  have  written  or  spoken  of  Darwin 
since  he  died,  by  none  has  an  unkind  word  been  said. 
His  was  a  gentle,  patient,  and  reverent  spirit,  and  by 
his  life  has  not  only  science  but  our  conception  of  Chris- 
tianity been  advanced  and  ennobled. 

"A  sacred  kinship  I  would  not  forego 
Binds  me  to  all  that  breathes  ;  through  endless  strife 
The  calm  and  deathless  dignity  of  life 
Unites  each  bleeding  victim  to  its  foe. 

"  I  am  the  child  of  earth  and  air  and  sea. 
My  lullaby  by  hoarse  Silurian  storms 
Was  chanted,  and  through  endless  changing  forms 
Of  tree  and  bird  and  beast  unceasingly 
The  toiling  ages  wrought  to  fashion  me. 

"  Lo  !  these  large  ancestors  have  left  a  breath 
Of  their  great  souls  in  mine,  defying  death 
And  change.     I  grow  and  blossom  as  the  tree, 
And  ever  feel  deep-delving  earthy  roots 
Binding  me  daily  to  the  common  clay  ; 
Yet  with  its  airy  impulse  upward  shoots 
My  soul  into  the  realms  of  light  and  day. 
And  thou,  O  sea,  stern  mother  of  my  soul, 
Thy  tempests  ring  in  me,  thy  billows  roll ! " 

HjALMAR    HjORTH    BOYESEN. 


II. 

EVOLUTION:   WHAT  IT  IS  AND  WHAT  IT  IS  NOT. 

THIS  is  the  age  of  evolution.     The  word  is  used  by 

many  men  in  many  senses,  and  still  oftener  perhaps  in 

no  sense  at  all.     By  some  it  is  spoken 

at  .  with    a    haunting   dread,    as   though   it 

evolution  is. 

were  another  name  for  the  downfall  of 

religion  and  of  social  stability.  Still  others  speak  it 
glibly  and  joyously,  as  though  progress  and  freedom 
were  secured  by  the  mere  use  of  the  name.  "  The  word 
evolution  (Entwickelung)"  says  a  German  writer,  "fills 
the  vocal  cords  more  perfectly  than  any  other  word." 
It  explains  everything  and  "  puts  the  key  to  the  universe 
into  one's  vest  pocket." 

So  various  has  been  the  use  of  the  word,  so  rarely  is 
this  use  associated  with  any  definite  idea,  that  one  hesi- 
tates to  call  himself  an  evolutionist.  "  Evolution  "  and 
"  evolutionist "  are  almost  ready  to  be  cast  into  that 
"  limbo  of  spoiled  phraseology  "  which  Matthew  Arnold 
has  found  necessary  for  so  many  words  in  which  other 
generations  delighted  and  which  they  soiled  or  spoiled 
by  careless  usage. 

But  as  the  word  evolution  is  not  yet  put  away,  as  it 
is  the  bugbear  of  many  good  people  and  the  "  religion  " 
of  as  many  more  equally  good,  it  may  be  worth  while  to 
consider  what  it  still  means  and  what  it  does  not  mean, 
for  if  we  that  use  the  word  can  agree  on  a  definition 
half  our  quarrel  is  over. 
54 


WHAT   IT    IS   AND   WHAT   IT   IS   NOT. 


55 


It  seems  to  me  that  the  word  evolution  is  now  legiti- 
mately used  in  four  different  senses.  It  is  the  name  of 
a  branch  of  science;  it  is  a  theory  of  organic  existence; 
it  is  a  method  of  investigation  ;  and  it  is  the  basis  of  a 
system  of  philosophy. 

As  a  science,  evolution  is  the  study  of  changing  be- 
ings acted  upon  by  unchanging  laws.     It  is  a  matter  of 
common     observation    that    organisms 
The  science  change  from  day  to  day,  and  that  day 

of  organic  .  .          .         .     . 

evolution  v       v   some  alteration   in  their   envi- 

ronment is  produced.  It  is  a  conclusion 
from  scientific  investigation  that  these  changes  are 
greater  than  they  appear.  They  affect  not  only  the  in- 
dividual animal  or  plant,  but  they  affect  all  groups  of 
living  things,  classes  or  races  or  species.  No  character 
is  permanent,  no  trait  of  life  without  change;  and  as 
the  living  organism  and  groups  of  organisms  are  under- 
going alteration,  so  doqs  change  take  place  in  the  ob- 
jects of  the  physical  world  about  them.  "Nothing 
endures,"  says  Huxley,  "save  the  flow  of  energy  and 
the  rational  order  that  pervades  it."  The  structures 
and  objects  change  their  forms  and  relations,  and  to 
forms  and  relations  once  abandoned  they  never  return; 
but  the  methods  of  change  are,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  im- 
mutable. The  laws  of  life,  the  laws  of  death,  and  the 
laws  of  matter  never  change.  If  the  invisible  forces 
which  rule  all  visible  things  are  themselves  subject  to 
modification  and  evolution  we  have  not  detected  it.  If 
these  vary,  their  aberrations  are  so  fine  as  to  defy  human 
observation  and  computation.  In  the  control  of  the  uni- 
verse we  find  no  trace  of  "  variableness  nor  shadow  of 
turning."  "  It  is  the  law  of  heaven  and  earth,  whose 
way  is  solid,  substantial,  vast,  and  unchanging." 

But  the  things  we  know  do  not  endure.  Only  the 
shortness  of  human  life  allows  us  to  speak  of  species  or 


56  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

even  of  individuals  as  permanent  entities.  The  mountain 
chain  is  no  more  nearly  eternal  than  the  drift  of  sand. 
It  endures  beyond  the  period  of  human  observation  ;  it 
antedates  and  outlasts  human  history.  So  does  the 
species  of  animal  or  plant  outlast  and  antedate  the  life- 
time of  one  man.  Its  changes  are  slight  even  in  the 
lifetime  of  the  race.  Thus  the  species,  through  the  per- 
sistence of  its  type  among  its  changing  individuals, 
comes  to  be  regarded  as  something  which  is  beyond 
modification,  unchanging  so  long  as  it  exists. 

"  I  believe,"  said  the  rose  to  the  lily  in  the  parable, 
"I  believe  that  our  gardener  is  immortal.  I  have 
watched  him  from  day  to  day  since  I  bloomed,  and  I  see 
no  change  in  him.  The  tulip  who  died  yesterday  told  me 
the  same  thing." 

As  a  flash  of  lightning  in  the  duration  of  the  night, 
so  is  the  life  of  man  in  the  duration  of  Nature.  When 
one  looks  out  on  a  storm  at  night  he  sees  for  an  instant 
the  landscape  illumined  by  the  lightning  flash.  All  seems 
at  rest.  The  branches  in  the  wind,  the  flying  clouds, 
the  falling  rain,  are  all  motionless  in  this  instantaneous 
view.  The  record  on  the  retina  takes  no  account  of 
change,  and  to  the  eye  the  change  does  not  exist. 
Brief  as  the  lightning  flash  in  the  storm  is  the  life  of 
man  compared  with  the  great  time  record  of  life  upon 
earth.  To  the  untrained  man  who  has  not  learned  to 
read  these  records,  species  and  types  in  life  are  endur- 
ing. From  this  illusion  arose  the  theory  of  special  crea- 
tion and  permanence  of  type,  a  theory  which  could  not 
persist  when  the  fact  of  change  and  the  forces  causing 
it  came  to  be  studied  in  detail. 

But  when  man  came  to  investigate  the  facts  of  indi- 
vidual variation  and  to  think  of  their  significance,  the 
current  of  life  no  longer  seemed  at  rest.  Like  the  flow 
of  a  mighty  river,  ever  sweeping  steadily  on,  never  re- 


WHAT    IT   IS  AND   WHAT   IT   IS   NOT. 


57 


turning,  is  the  movement  of  all  life.  The  changes  in 
human  history  are  only  typical  of  the  changes  that  take 
place  in  all  living  creatures.  In  fact,  human  history  is 
only  a  part  of  one  great  life  current,  the  movement  of 
which  is  everywhere  governed  by  the  same  laws,  depends 
on  the  same  forces,  and  brings  about  like  results. 

The  facts  and  generalizations  of  change  constitute 
the  subject  matter  of  evolution  ;  and  as  the  fact  of  life 
is  a  fundamental  one  and  in  some  degree  modifies  all 
phenomena  which  it  concerns,  we  have  as  the  central 
axis  of  the  science  in  question  the  study  of  organic  evo- 
lution. In  fact,  while  inorganic  evolution  or  orderly 
change  in  environment  also  exists,  we  do  not  know  to 
what  degree  the  laws  and  forces  of  organic  evolution 
can  be  reduced  to  the  same  terms  of  expression.  The 
theory  of  the  essential  and  necessary  unity  of  life  and 
non-life,  of  mind  and  matter,  is  still  a  matter  of  phil- 
osophical speculation  only.  We  can  neither  prove  the 
truth  of  Monism  nor  understand  it ;  nor  is  the  contrary 
hypothesis  either  comprehensible  or  credible.  The 
fundamental  unity  of  organic  evolution  and  inorganic 
evolution  is  likewise  yet  to  be  proved,  while  the  laws 
which  govern  living  matter  are  certainly  in  part  peculiar 
to  life.  For  this  reason  the  evolution  of  astronomy,  of 
dynamic  geology,  of  geography,  as  well  as  the  purely 
hypothetical  evolution  of  chemistry,  must  be  separated 
from  life  evolution.  Cosmic  evolution  and  organic  evo- 
lution show  or  seem  to  show  some  divergence  from  each 
other.  To  regard  them  as  identical  is  to  introduce  con- 
fusion and  not  order  into  our  conception  of  evolution. 
There  are  some  elements  which  are  not  held  in  com- 
mon, or  which  at  least  are  not  identical  when  measured 
in  human  terms.  It  is  not  evident  that  any  force  in 
the  evolution  of  life  is  homologous  with  any  which  has 
brought  about  the  evolution  of  stars  and  planets.  This 


5 8  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

unity  of  forces  may  be  a  philosophical  necessity  ;  it  is 
not  a  fact. 

For  the  science  which  treats  of  organic  evolution  we 
are  in  great  need  of  a  distinctive  term.  This  need  was 

met  by  Prof.  Patrick  Geddes,  who  sug- 
Bionomics.  ,      ,  ,  .  .  _..  . 

gested  the  term  bionomics.     Bionomics 

(/?i'os,  life ;  VO/AOS,  law  or  custom)  is  the  science  which 
treats  of  the  changes  in  life  forms  and  of  the  laws  and 
forces  on  which  these  changes  depend. 

Even  as  thus  restricted,  organic  evolution,  or  bio- 
nomics, is  the  greatest  of  the  sciences,  including  in  its  sub- 
ject matter  not  only  all  natural  history,  not  only  pro- 
cesses like  cell  division  and  nutrition,  not  only  the  laws 
of  heredity,  variation,  natural  selection,  and  mutual 
help,  but  all  matters  of  human  history,  and  the  most 
complicated  relations  of  civics,  economics,  and  ethics. 
In  this  enormous  science  no  fact  can  be  without  a  mean- 
ing, and  no  fact  or  its  underlying  forces  can  be  sepa- 
rated from  the  great  forces  whose  interaction  from  mo- 
ment to  moment  writes  the  great  story  of  life. 

And  as  the  basis  to  the  science  of  bionomics,  as  to 
all  other  science,  must  be  taken  the  conception  that 
nothing  is  due  to  chance  or  whim.  Whatever  occurs 
comes  as  the  resultant  of  moving  forces.  Could  we 
know  and  estimate  these  forces,  we  should  have,  so  far 
as  our  estimate  is  accurate  and  our  logic  perfect,  the 
gift  of  prophecy.  Knowing  the  law,  and  knowing  the 
facts,  we  should  foretell  the  results.  To  be  able  in 
some  degree  to  do  this  is  the  art  of  life.  It  is  the  ulti- 
mate end  of  science,  which  finds  its  final  purpose  in  hu- 
man conduct. 

"A  law,"  according  to  Darwin,  "is  the  ascertained 
sequence  of  events."  The  necessary  sequence  of  events 
it  is,  in  fact,  but  man  knows  nothing  of  what  is  neces- 
sary, only  of  what  has  been  ascertained  to  occur.  Be- 


WHAT   IT   IS   AND   WHAT   IT   IS   NOT. 


59 


cause  human  observation  and  logic  can  be  only  partial, 
no  law  of  life  can  be  fully  stated.  Because  the  processes 
of  the  human  mind  are  human,  with  organic  limitations, 

the  study  of  the  mind  itself  becomes  a 
Meaning  of  law.  c     ,  .  ...  . 

part  of  the  science  of  bionomics.     For 

it  is  itself  an  instrument  or  a  combination  of  instruments 
by  which  we  acquire  such  knowledge  of  the  world  out- 
side of  ourselves  as  may  be  needed  in  the  art  of  liv- 
ing, in  the  degree  in  which  we  are  able  to  practise 
that  art. 

The  necessary  sequence  of  events  exists,  whether  we 
are  able  to  comprehend  it  or  not.  The  fall  of  a  leaf 
follows  fixed  laws  as  surely  as  the  motion  of  a  planet. 
It  falls  by  chance  because  its  short  movement  gives  us 
no  time  for  observation  and  calculation.  It  falls  by 
chance  because,  its  results  being  unimportant  to  us,  we 
give  no  heed  to  the  details  of  its  motion.  But  as  the 
hairs  of  our  head  are  all  numbered,  so  are  numbered 
all  the  gyrations  and  undulations  of  every  chance  au- 
tumn leaf.  All  processes  in  the  universe  are  alike  nat- 
ural. The  creation  of  man  or  the  growth  of  a  state 
is  as  natural  as  the  formation  of  an  apple  or  the 
growth  of  a  snow  bank.  All  are  alike  supernatural, 
for  they  all  rest  on  the  huge  unseen  solidity  of  the  uni- 
verse, the  imperishability  of  matter  and  the  immanence 
of  law. 

We  sometimes  classify  sciences  as  exact  and  inexact, 
in  accordance  with  our  ability  exactly  to  weigh  forces 
and  results.  The  exact  sciences  deal  with  simple  data 
accessible  and  capable  of  measurement.  The  results  of 
their  interactions  can  be  reduced  to  mathematics.  Be- 
cause of  their  essential  simplicity,  the  mathematical  sci- 
ences have  been  carried  to  great  comparative  perfection. 
It  is  easier  to  weigh  an  invisible  planet  than  to  measure  the 
force  of  heredity  in  a  grain  of  corn.  The  sciences  of  life 


60  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

are  inexact  because  the  human  mind  can  never  grasp  all 
their  data.  The  combined  effort  of  all  men,  the  flower 
of  the  altruism  of  the  ages,  which  we  call  science  has 
made  only  a  beginning  in  such  study.  But,  however  in- 
complete our  realization  of  the  laws  of  life,  we  may  be 
sure  that  they  are  never  broken.  Each  law  is  the  ex- 
pression of  the  best  possible  way  in  which  causes  and 
results  can  be  linked.  It  is  the  necessary  sequence  of 
events,  therefore  the  best  sequence,  if  we  may  imagine 
for  a  moment  that  the  human  words  "  good  "  and  "  bad  " 
are  applicable  to  world  processes.  The  laws  of  Nature 
are  not  executors  of  human  justice.  Each  one  has  its 
own  operation  and  no  other.  Each  represents  its  own 
tendency  toward  cosmic  order.  A  law  in  this  sense  can 
not  be  "  broken."  "  If  God  should  wink  at  a  single  act 
of  injustice,"  says  the  Arab  proverb,  "  the  whole  uni- 
verse would  shrivel  up  like  a  cast-off  snake  skin."  If 
God  should  wink  at  any  violated  law  the  universe  would 
vanish. 

Not  long  ago,  in  an  examination  in  a  theological 
seminary,  the  question  was  asked  of  the  candidates  for 
the  ministry,  "  Is  it  right  to  pray  for  a  change  of  sea- 
son ?"  The  candidates  thought  that  it  was  not,  for  the 
relations  which  produce  winter  and  summer  are  fixed  in 
the  structure  of  the  solar  system  and  can  not  be  altered 
for  man's  pleasure  or  man's  need.  "  Is  it  right  to  pray 
for  rain  ? "  The  candidates  generally  thought  that  it 
was,  because  the  conditions  of  rain  are  so  unstable  that 
a  little  change  in  one  way  or  another  would  bring 
rain  or  fair  weather.  It  is  proper  to  ask  for  such  a 
change,  as  it  does  not  concern  the  economy  of  the 
universe. 

The  third  question  was :  "  When  the  signal  service 
of  the  United  States  is  well  established,  so  that  weather 
conditions  are  perfectly  known,  will  it  then  be  right  to 


WHAT    IT   IS   AND   WHAT    IT    IS   NOT.  6 1 

pray*  for  rain  ?"  And  the  candidates  for  the  ministry 
could  not  tell,  for  they  began  to  see  that  even  simple 
changes  of  weather  may  have  the  strength  of  the  whole 
universe  behind  them.  It  has  never  yet  rained  when  by 
any  possibility  it  could  do  otherwise.  It  has  never  failed 
to  rain  when  rain  was  possible. 

We  hear  good  men  say  sometimes  that  the  crying 
need  of  this  sceptical  age  is  that  it  may  see  some  law 
of  Nature  definitely  broken,  that  it  may  rain  when  rain 
is  impossible,  or  that  some  burning  bush  may,  uncon- 
suming,  proclaim  that  the  force  which  is  behind  all  law 
is  also  above  it  and  can  break  or  repeal  all  its  own  laws 
at  will. 

Emerson  somewhere  speaks  of  the  purpose  in  life — 
"to  be  sound  and  solvent."     As  his  life  was  in  all  ways 
"  sound    and    solvent,"    perhaps    such 
Soundness  and       fule   Qjf  conduct  was  his  own.      But  one 
solvency  of  „.  ....  , 

Na  ure  may  say,  This  is  only  a  human   resolu- 

tion. The  man  himself  should  be  above 
all  rules  and  requirements  of  his  own  making.  Let  Mr. 
Emerson  show  that  his  life  is  above  his  principles.  Let 
him  break  these  rules  to  show  his  power.  Let  him  be 
"  unsound  and  insolvent "  for  a  time.  Then  only  will 
his  real  greatness  appear.  But  the  soundness  and  sol- 
vency were  the  expression  of  Emerson's  life.  Without 
these  he  would  not  be  Emerson. 

The  laws  of  Nature  are  the  expression  of  the  infinite 
soundness  and  solvency  of  the  universe.  They  will  not 
be  broken,  nor  through  their  unsoundness  and  insol- 

"  The  essence  of  prayer  is  to  bring  two  things  into  unison — 
the  will  of  God  and  the  will  of  man.  Superstition  imagined,  no 
doubt,  that  prayer  would  change  the  will  of  God,  but  the  more 
spiritually  minded  have  always  understood  that  the  will  which 
must  be  modified  in  prayer  was  the  will  of  man." — Bernard 
Bosanquet. 


62  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

vency  will  the  "  heavens  roll  away  as  a  scroll,"  nor  "  the 
universe  shrivel  up  as  a  cast-off  snake  skin." 

In  the  growing  recognition  of  law  has  lain  the  prog- 
ress of  science.  From  the  casting  aside  of  human  no- 
tions of  chance  and  whim  the  "  warfare  of  science  "  has 
had  its  rise.  For  every  fact  carried  over  into  the  realm 
of  law  some  man  has  given  his  life.  Many  a  time  in  the 
growth  of  humanity  it  has  been  necessary  that  the  wisest, 
clearest,  most  humane  should  die  on  the  stake  or  the 
gibbet  or  the  cross,  that  men  should  come  to  realize 
the  power  of  an  idea;  that  they  should  know  the  mean- 
ing of  truth. 

Many  men  have  been  distressed  over  the  insensibil- 
ity of  Nature.  She  goes  on  with  her  own  affairs.  If 

the  ship  leaks,  she  drowns  a  prophet  as 
The  indifference  ghe  wQuld  &  ^  The  stQnes  in  the 

of  Nature.  . 

street  should  have  cried  out  at  the  mur- 
der of  Caesar.  But  they  did  not.  It  was  only  men  who 
cried.  Once,  when  a  fugitive  slave  was  seized  in  Massa- 
chusetts, there  were  those  who  felt  outraged  that  Nature 
did  not  rebel  against  it.  It  was  a  surprise  to  Thoreau 
that  the  squirrels  went  on  with  their  hoard  and  the  wind 
rustled  in  the  trees,  as  though  nothing  had  happened. 
But  what  should  Nature  do  ?  She  attends  only  to  her 
own  affairs.  She  is  only  a  figure  of  speech  by  which  we 
personify  her  affairs.  Her  "just  keeping  on  the  same, 
calmer  than  clockwork  and  not  caring,"  is  the  expression 
of  the  solidity  of  the  universe.  She  is  as  indifferent  as 
the  multiplication  table  is,  for  the  multiplication  table 
is  only  another  expression  of  unchanging  law.  A  law 
of  Nature  is  "  no  respecter  of  persons."  A  varying  mul- 
tiplication table  would  be  the  destruction  of  mathe- 
matics. A  varying  law  of  Nature  would  be  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  universe. 

The  laws  of  evolution  have  in  themselves  no  neces- 


WHAT   IT   IS   AND   WHAT    IT   IS   NOT.  63 

sary  principle  of  progress.  Their  functions  each  and  all 
may  be  defined  as  cosmic  order.  The  law  of  gravita- 
tion brings  order  in  rest  or  motion.  The  laws  of  chemi- 
cal affinity  bring  about  molecular  stability.  Heredity 
repeats  strength  or  weakness,  good  or  ill,  with  like  in- 
difference. The  past  will  not  let  go  of  us;  we  can  not 
let  go  of  the  past.  The  law  of  mutual  help  brings  the 
perpetuation  of  weakness  as  well  as  the  strength  of  co- 
operation. Even  the  law  of  pity  is  pitiless,  and  the 
law  of  mercy  merciless.  The  nerves  carry  sensations  of 
pleasure  or  pain,  themselves  as  indifferent  as  the  tele- 
graph wire  which  is  man's  invention  to  serve  similar  pur- 
poses. Some  men  who  call  themselves  pessimists  because 
they  can  not  read  good  into  the  operations  of  Nature 
forget  that  they  can  not  read  evil. 

For  both  good  and  evil  belong  to  man's  reaction 
from  the  influences  of  environment.  It  is  the  growth  of 
love  and  wisdom  through  struggle  and  storm  that  makes 
this  world  the  abode  of  righteousness.  It  is  the  effort 
of  man  that  deifies  Nature.  It  is  this  that  raises  the 
process  of  evolution  above  the  level  of  the  multiplica- 
tion table.  It  is  this  that  makes  the  whole  of  Nature 
greater  than  the  sum  of  all  her  parts. 

In  a  different  sense  the  word  evolution  is  applied  to 

the  theory   of  the  origin  of  organs  and  of  species  by 

divergence  and  development.     This  the- 

Evolution  as  a  teaches  that  all  forms  of  life  now 

theory  of  organic         .     .  . ,     ,     ,  .         , 

development.         existing  or  that   have   existed   on   the 
earth  have  sprung  from  a  common  stock, 
which  has  undergone  change  in  a  multitude  of  ways  and 
under  varied  conditions,  the  forces  and  influences  pro- 
ducing such  change  being  known   as   the  "  factors  of 
organic  evolution."     All  characters   and   attributes   of 
species  and  groups  have  developed  with  changing  con- 
ditions of  life.     The  homologies  among  animals  are  the 
6 


64  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

result  of  common  descent.  The  differences  are  due  to 
various  influences,  chief  among  these  being  competition 
in  the  struggle  for  existence  between  individuals  and 
between  species,  whereby  those  best  adapted  to  their 
surroundings  live  and  reproduce  their  kind. 

This  theory  is  now  the  central  axis  of  all  biological 
investigation  in  all  its  branches,  from  ethics  to  histology, 
from  anthropology  to  bacteriology.  In  the  light  of  this 
theory  every  peculiarity  of  structure,  every  character  or 
quality  of  individual  or  species,  has  a  meaning  and  a 
cause.  It  is  the  work  of  the  investigator  to  find  this 
meaning  as  well  as  to  record  the  fact.  "  One  of  the 
noblest  lessons  left  to  the  world "  by  Darwin,  Frank 
Cramer  says,  "  is  this,  which  to  him  amounted  to  a  pro- 
found, almost  religious,  conviction,  that 
Each  fact  has  a  every  fact  jn  >Jature  no  matter  how  in- 
meaning.  :  ... 

significant,  every  stripe  of  colour,  every 

tint  of  flowers,  the  length  of  an  orchid's  nectary,  un- 
usual height  in  a  plant,  all  the  infinite  variety  of  appar- 
ently insignificant  things,  is  full  of  significance.  For 
him  it  was  an  historical  record,  the  revelation  of  a  cause, 
the  lurking  place  of  a  principle." 

According  to  the  theory  of  evolution  every  structure 
of  to-day  finds  its  meaning  in  some  condition  of  the 
past.  The  inside  of  an  animal  tells  what  it  really  is,  for 
it  bears  the  record  of  heredity.  The  outside  of  an  ani- 
mal tells  where  its.  ancestors  have  been,  for  it  bears 
record  of  concessions  to  environment.  Similarity  in 
essential  structure  is  known  as  homology.  By  the  theory 
of  evolution  homology,  wherever  it  is  found,  is  proof  of 
blood  relationship. 

The  theory  of  organic  evolution  through  natural 
law  was  first  placed  on  a  stable  footing  by  the  observa- 
tions and  inductions  of  Darwin.  It  has  therefore  been 
long  known  as  Darwinism,  although  that  term  has  been 


WHAT    IT    IS   AND   WHAT   IT   IS   NOT.  65 

usually  associated  with  the  recognition  of  natural  selec- 
tion as  the  great  motive  power  in  organic  change. 
Darwinism  was  at  first  regarded  as  a  "working  hypoth- 
esis." It  is  now  an  integral  part  of  biological  science, 
because  all  opposing  hypotheses  have  long  since  ceased 
to  work.  It  is  as  well  attested  as  the  theory  of  gravita- 
tion, and  its  elements  are  open  to  less  doubt.  All  in- 
vestigations in  biology  must  assume  it,  as  without  it 
most  such  investigations  would  be  impossible.  Natural- 
ists could  no  more  go  back  to  the  old  notion  of  special 
creation  for  each  species  and  its  organs  than  astrono- 
mers could  go  back  to  the  old  notion  of  guiding  angels 
as  directors  of  planetary  motion.  Without  the  theory 
of  organic  development  through  natural  selection  the 
biological  science  of  to-day  would  be  impossible. 

In  a  third  sense  the  word  evolution  is  applied  to  a 
method  of  investigation.     It  is  the  study  of  present  con- 
ditions  in    the  light   of   the  past.     The 
Evolution  as  a  limi  work   of  science   ig   the    de_ 

method  of  study.          .      .          y  ,*,... 

scnptive  part.      This  involves  accuracy 

of  observation  and  precision  of  statement,  but  makes 
no  great  demands  on  the  powers  of  logical  analysis  and 
synthesis.  The  easy  work  of  science  is  largely  already 
done.  Those  who  would  continue  investigation  must 
study  not  only  facts  and  structures,  but  the  laws  that 
govern  them.  In  the  words  of  John  Fiske,  "Whether 
planets  or  mountains  or  molluscs  or  subjunctive  modes 
or  tribal  confederacies  be  the  things  studied,  the  scholars 
who  have  studied  them  most  fruitfully  were  those  who 
have  studied  them  as  phases  of  development.  Their 
work  has  directed  the  current  of  thought."  The  most 
difficult  problems  in  life  are  susceptible  of  more  or  less 
perfect  solution  if  approached  by  the  method  of  evolu- 
tion. They  can  not  be  even  stated  as  problems  in  any 
other  terms.  In  every  science  worthy  of  the  name  the 


66  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

history  of  origins  and  the  study  of  developing  forces 
must  take  a  leading  part. 

In  a  fourth  sense  the  word  evolution  has  been  ap- 
plied  to   the    philosophical    conceptions   to    which   the 
theory   of    evolution    gives   rise.      Phi- 
Evolution  as          losophy  is  not  truth.     When  it  is  so  it 
ofYosmTc  becomes  science.     At  the  best  it  points 

philosophy  t'ie  wav  to  trutn-     The  broader  the  in- 

ductive basis  of  any  system  of  philoso- 
phy, the  greater  its  value  as  an  intellectual  help.  The 
system  of  Herbert  Spencer,  the  greatest  exponent  of 
the  philosophy  of  evolution,  is  based  wholly  on  the  re- 
sults of  scientific  investigation.  It  consists  of  a  series 
of  more  or  less  broad  and  more  or  less  probable  de- 
ductions from  the  facts  and  laws  already  known.  Sys- 
tems like  these  which  rest  on  scientific  knowledge  do 
not  rise  high  above  it.  They  can  therefore  be  revised 
or  rewritten  as  knowledge  increases.  They  provide  the 
means  for  their  own  correction.  Systems  resting  on 
aphorisms  or  assumptions  or  definitions  must  disappear 
as  knowledge  increases. 

Philosophy  is  never  wholly  identical  with  truth.  The 
partial  truth  which  it  may  contain  becomes  wholly  error 
with  the  advance  of  science.  The  growth  of  exact 
knowledge  transforms  the  truth  in  philosophy  into 
science,  leaving  the  absolute  falsehood  as  the  final  re- 
siduum. 

From  this  necessary  fact  comes  the  ultimate  decay 

of  all  creeds  or  philosophic  formulae.     Throughout  the 

ages  science  and  philosophy  have  been 

Decay  of  Jn  confljct      Science  is  the  same  to  all 

formulae.  .     ,  .          . 

minds  capable  of  grasping  its  conclu- 
sions. Philosophy  changes  with  the  point  of  view.  It 
is  the  evanescent  perspective  in  which  the  facts  and 
phenomena  of  the  universe  are  seen.  This  can  never 


WHAT    IT    IS   AND   WHAT    IT   IS   NOT.  67 

be  the  same  under  changing  times  and  conditions.  With 
the  larger  knowledge  of  to-morrow  there  will  be  large 
modifications  in  the  accepted  philosophy  of  evolution. 
Each  succeeding  generation  will  give  to  the  applications 
of  the  laws  of  organic  life  a  different  philosophical  ex- 
pression. 

In  these  four  senses  the  word  evolution  is  used  with 
some  degree  of  accuracy ;  but  in  the  current  literature 

of  the  day  the  word  has  many  other 
iYno't  eVOlUti°n  meanings,  some  of  them  very  far  from 

any  just  basis.  Some  things  which  evo- 
lution is  not  we  may  here  notice  briefly. 

Evolution  is  not  a  theory  that  "man  is  a  developed 
monkey."  The  question  of  the  immediate  origin  of  man 

is    not    the    central    or    overshadowing 

Man  not  a  question    of   evolution.      This  question 

developed  ...  .    .     ,.„,       .   .         .         . 

monke  offers  no  special   difficulties   in  theory, 

although  .the  materials  for  exact  knowl- 
edge are  in  many  directions  incomplete.  Homologies 
more  perfect  than  those  connecting  man  with  the  great 
group  of  monkeys  could  not  exist.  These  imply  the 
blood  relationship  of  the  human  race  with  the  great 
host  of  apes  and  monkeys.  As  to  this  there  can  be  no 
shadow  of  a  doubt,  and,  as  similar  homologies  connect 
man  with  all  members  of  the  group  of  mammals,  similar 
blood  relationship  must  exist;  and  homologies  less  close 
but  equally  unmistakable  connect  all  backboned  ani- 
mals one  with  another,  and  the  lowest  backboned  types 
are  closely  joined  to  wormlike  forms  not  usually  classed 
as  vertebrates. 

It  is  perfectly  true  that  in  the  higher  or  anthro- 
poid apes  the  relations  with  man  are  extremely  inti- 
mate ;  but  man  is  not  simply  "  a  developed  ape."  Apes 
and  men  have  diverged  from  the  same  primitive  stock — 
apelike,  manlike,  but  not  exactly  the  one  nor  the  other. 


68  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

No  apes  nor  monkeys  now  extant  could  apparently  have 
been  ancestors  of  primitive  man.  None  can  ever  "  de- 
velop "  into  man.  As  man  changes  and  diverges,  race 
from  race,  so  do  they.  The  influence  of  effort,  the  in- 
fluence of  surroundings,  the  influence  of  the  sifting 
process  of  natural  selection,  each  acts  upon  them  as  it 
acts  upon  man. 

The  process  of  evolution  is  not  progress,  but  better 
adaptation  to  conditions  of  life.  As  man  becomes  fitted 

for  social  and  civic  life,  so  does  the  ape 
Not  progress,  become   fitted   for   Hfe   in   the    tree  tops 

but  adaptation. 

The  movement  of  monkeys    is   toward 

"  simianity,"  not  humanity.  The  movement  of  cat  life 
is  toward  felinity,  that  of  the  dog  races  toward  caninity. 
Each  step  in  evolution  upward  or  downward,  whatever 
it  may  be,  carries  each  species  or  type  farther  from  the 
primitive  stock.  These  steps  are  never  retraced.  For 
an  ape  to  become  a  man  he  must  go  back  to  the  simple 
characters  of  the  simple  common  type  from  which  both 
have  sprung.  These  characters  are  shown  in  the  ape 
baby  and  in  the  human  embryo  in  its  corresponding 
stages,  for  ancestral  traits  lost  in  the  adult  are  evident 
in  the  young.  This  persistence  comes  through  the  op- 
eration of  the  great  force  of  cell  memory  which  we  call 
heredity. 

The  evidence  of  biology  points  to  the  descent  of  all 
mammals,  of  all  vertebrates,  of  all  animals,  of  all  or- 
ganic beings,  from  a  common  stock.  Of  all  the  races  of 
animals  the  anthropoid  apes  are  nearest  man.  Their 
divergence  from  the  same  stock  must  be  comparatively 
recent.  Man  is  the  nomadic,  the  apes  are  the  arboreal, 
branch  of  the  same  great  family. 

Evolution  does  not  teach  that  all  or  any  living  forms 
are  tending  toward  humanity.  It  does  not  teach,  as  in 
Bishop  Wilberforce's  burlesque,  "  that  every  favourable 


WHAT   IT   IS   AND   WHAT    IT   IS   NOT. 


69 


variety  of  the  turnip  is  tending  to  become  man."     It  is 

not  true  that  evolutionists  expect  to  find,  as  Dr.  Seelye 

has  affirmed,  "  the  growth  of  the  highest 

Humanity  not       alga  into  a  zo6phyte>  a  phenomenon  for 

.  e  **°r  °  which  sharp  eyes  have  sought,  and  which 

is  not  only  natural  but  inevitable  on  the 

Darwinian  hypothesis,  and  whose  discovery  would  make 

the  fame  of  any  observer." 

It  is  no  wonder  that  a  clear  thinker  should  have  re- 
jected "  the  Darwinian  hypothesis  "  when  stated  in  such 
terms  as  this.  The  line  of  junction  in  evolution  is  al- 
ways at  the  bottom.  It  is  the  lowest  mammals  which 
approach  the  lowest  reptiles ;  it  is  the  lower  types  of 
plants  which  approach  the  lower  types  of  animals;  it 
would  be  the  lowest  alga,  to  use  Dr.  Seelye's  illustration, 
which  would  be  transmutable  into  the  lowest  zoophyte  ; 
it  is  the  unspecialized,  undifferentiated  type  from  which 
branches  diverge  in  different  ways.  Humanity  is  not 
the  "  goal  of  evolution,"  not  even  that  of  human  evolu- 
tion. There  will  be  no  second  "creation  of  man"  ex- 
cept from  man's  own  loins.  There  will  not  be  a  second 
Anglo-Saxon  race  unless  it  has  the  old  Anglo-Saxon 
blood  in  its  veins. 

Adaptation  by  divergence — for  the  most  part  by  slow 

stages — is  the  movement  of  evolution.    While  occasional 

leaps   or  sudden  changes  occur  in  the 

Change  by  slow  tfa        afe    b     nQ    means  the  fule> 

divergence.  ,  ,  , 

In  most  cases  of  "  saltatory  evolution 

the  suddenness  is  in  appearance  only.  It  comes  from 
our  inability  to  trace  the  intermediate  stages.  When  an 
epoch-making  character  is  acquired,  as  the  wings  of  a 
bird  or  the  brain  of  man,  the  process  of  readjustment 
of  other  characters  goes  on  with  greatly  increased 
rapidity.  But  this  rapidity  of  evolution  is  along  the 
same  lines  as  the  slower  processes.  Radical  changes 


70  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

from  generation  to  generation  never  occur.  We  do  not 
expect  to  find  birds  arising  from  a  "  flying-fish  in  the 
air,  whose  scales  are  disparting  into  feathers."  A  flying- 
fish  is  no  more  of  the  nature  of  a  bird  than  any  other  fish 
is.  A  cow  will  never  give  birth  to  a  horse,  nor  a  horse 
to  a  cow.  The  slow  operation  of  existing  causes  is  the 
central  fact  of  organic  evolution,  as  it  is  of  the  evolu- 
tion of  mountains  and  valleys.  Seasons  change  as  the 
relations  which  produce  them  change.  But  midsummer 
never  gives  way  to  midwinter  in  an  instant.  Nor  does 
the  child  in  an  instant  become  a  man,  though  in  some 
periods  of  growth  epoch-marking  causes  may  make  de- 
velopment more  rapid.  Life  is  conservative.  The  law 
of  heredity  is  the  expression  of  its  conservatism.  Life 
changes  slowly,  but  it  must  constantly  change,  and  all 
change  is  by  necessity  divergence. 

There  is  in  Nature  no  single  "  law  of  progress,"  nor 
is  progress  in  any  group  a  necessity  regardless  of  con- 
ditions.     That  which  we  call    progress 
No  innate  tend-      restg  simply  on  the  survival  of  the  better 
ency  toward  ,  ,        ,     .  ,     ,     . 

progression.  adapted,    their   survival    being    accom- 

panied by  their  reproduction.  Those 
that  live  repeat  themselves.  The  "  innate  tendency 
toward  progression  "  of  the  early  evolutionists  is  a 
philosophic  myth.  Progress  and  degeneration  are  alike 
the  resultants  of  the  various  forces  at  work  from  gen- 
eration to  generation  on  and  within  a  race  or  species. 
The  same  forces  which  bring  progress  to  a  group  under 
one  set  of  conditions  will  bring  degradation  under 
another.  In  their  essence  the  factors  of  evolution  are 
no  more  laws  of  progress  than  the  attraction  of  gravita- 
tion is.  Cosmic  order  comes  from  gravitation.  Or- 
ganic order  comes  from  the  factors  of  evolution.  Evo- 
lution is  simply  orderly  change. 

Nor  is  evolution  identical  with  the  notion  of  sponta- 


WHAT   IT   IS   AND   WHAT   IT   IS   NOT.  >jl 

neous  generation.  There  is  no  necessary  connection 
between  the  one  theory  and  the  other.  Spontaneous 
generation,  or  birth  without  parentage,  on  the  part  of 

small  or  useless  creatures  was  accepted 
Spontaneous  in  e,  timeg  without  question.  As  men 
generation.  * 

began   to   observe   these  animals   more 

carefully,  the  fact  of  their  spontaneous  generation  was 
doubted.  A  great  step  was  made  when  it  was  found 
that  to  screen  meat  from  flies  would  protect  it  from 
maggots.  A  greater  step  came  in  our  own  time  when  it 
was  proved  that  to  screen  infusions  from  air  dust  is  to 
protect  them  from  putrefaction  or  fermentation.  Fer- 
mentation is  "  life  without  air."  It  is  the  decomposition 
of  sugar  by  minute  creatures  who  disintegrate  it  in  their 
life  processes.  Putrefaction  and  decay  are  also  the 
same  in  nature.  There  is  literal  truth  in  Carlyle's  state- 
ment that  there  is  still  force  in  a  fallen  leaf,  "  else  how 
could  it  rot?  "  It  is  the  force  of  the  minute  organisms 
hidden  in  the  leaf,  and  whose  life  is  the  leaf's  decay. 
The  decay  and  death  of  men  from  contagious  diseases 
are  known  to  be  due  to  life  processes  of  minute  organ- 
isms, as  is  the  gangrene  which  follows  unskilful  sur- 
gery. The  study  of  the  "  fauna  and  flora  "  within  living 
organisms  has  now  become  a  science  of  itself,  demand- 
ing the  greatest  care  in  observation  and  the  most  com- 
plete of  appliances.  "  Omne  vivum  ex  vivo"  "  all  life  from 
life,"  was  an  aphorism  of  the  naturalists  of  a  century  or 
two  ago.  It  was  to  them  a  new  and  broad  generali- 
zation. It  has  not  yet  been  set  aside.  The  classic  ex- 
periments of  Tyndall  show  that  this  law  applies  to  all 
creatures  we  have  yet  recognised  or  classified.  As  far 
as  science  can  tell,  spontaneous  generation  is  still  a 
myth,  having  no  basis  in  observation,  no  warrant  in  ex- 
periment. It  remains  as  a  pure  deduction  from  the  phi- 
losophical conception  of  Monism.  It  is  incapable  of 


72  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

proof,  insusceptible  of  refutation.  The  argument  for.it 
is  chiefly  this :  Life  exists  on  a  globe  once  lifeless.  How 
did  life  begin  ?  If  not  through  spontaneous  generation, 
how  did  it  come  ?  Must  it  not  have  been  by  the  opera- 
tion of  those  laws  and  forces  which  through  all  time 
change  lifeless  into  living  matter  ?  Very  likely,  but  we 
do  not  know.  We  know  nothing  whatever  of  such  laws 
and  forces,  and  we  gain  nothing  by  veiling  our  ignorance 
under  a  philosophical  necessity. 

Moreover,  if  spontaneous  generation  occurs  as  a  re- 
sultant of  any  forces,  like  forces  would  produce  it  again. 
WTe  have  never  known  it  to  occur.  Should  it  occur,  the 
organisms  thus  produced  would  have  no  bonds  of  blood 
relationship  with  those  already  in  existence.  With  these 
they  should  show  no  homology,  as  they  could  have  no 
inheritance  in  common.  But  all  known  organisms  have 
common  homologies.  The  factors  of  organic  evolu- 
tion are  essentially  the  same  for  all.  The  unity  of  life 
amid  all  its  diversity  seems  to  point  to  origin  from  a 
common  stock.  If  not  from  one  stock,  the  lines  of 
division  between  one  and  another  are  hidden  from  us. 
The  study  of  embryology  breaks  down  the  time-honoured 
branch  lines  of  vertebrates,  articulates,  molluscs,  and 
radiates.  The  groups  of  animals  are  more  numerous, 
more  complex,  and  more  intertangled  than  Cuvier  and 
Agassiz  thought.  The  number  of  primary  branches  of 
animals  or  plants  is  uncertain,  their  boundaries  unde- 
fined. 

If  spontaneous  generation  exists,  it  is  a  factor  in 
evolution.  If  it  is  a  factor,  our  explanation  of  the 
meaning  and  nature  of  homology  must  be  fundamentally 
changed.  But  it  may  be  that  it  should  be  changed.  We 
can  not  show  that  spontaneous  generation  does  not 
exist.  All  we  know  is  that  we  have  no  means  of  recog- 
nising it.  If  there  is  now  spontaneous  generation  of 


WHAT    IT   IS   AND   WHAT    IT   IS   NOT.  73 

protoplasm,  it  can  not  take  the  form  of  any  creature  we 
know.  An  organism  fresh  from  the  mint  of  creation 
would  be  too  small  for  us  to  see  with  any  microscope. 
It  would  be  too  simple  for  us  to  trace  by  any  instru- 
mentality now  in  our  possession.  It  could  contain  but 
a  few  molecules,  and  a  molecule  in  a  drop  of  water  is  as 
small  as  an  orange  beside  the  sun.  Such  a  race  of  crea- 
tures, spontaneously  generated,  without  concessions  to 
environment,  would  grow  hoary  with  the  centuries  be- 
fore it  came  to  our  notice.  Its  descendants  would  have 
belonged  for  ages  to  the  unnumbered  hosts  of  microbes 
before  we  should  be  aware  of  its  creation. 

Evolution  is  not  a  creed  or  a  body  of  doctrine  to  be 
believed  on  authority.      There  is  no    saving  grace    in 
being  an  evolutionist.     There  are  many 

t  wh°  take  this  name  and  have  n°  interest 
in  finding  out  what  it  means  or  in  mak- 
ing any  application  of  its  principles  to  the  affairs  of 
life.  For  one  who  cares  not  to  master  its  ideas  there 
is  no  power  in  the  word.  Evolution  is  not  a  panacea 
or  a  medicine  to  be  applied  to  social  or  personal  ills. 
It  is  simply  an  expression  of  the  teaching  of  enlightened 
common  sense  as  to  the  order  of  changes  in  life.  If  its 
principles  are  mastered  a  knowledge  of  evolution  is  an 
aid  in  the  conduct  of  life,  as  knowledge  of  gravitation 
is  essential  in  the  building  of  machinery. 

Ther-;  is  nothing  "  occult  "  in  the  science  of  evolu- 
tion. It  is  not  the  product  of  philosophic  meditation  or 
of  speculative  philosophy.  It  is  based  on  hard  facts, 
and  with  hard  facts  it  must  deal. 

It  seems  to  me  that  it  is  not  true  that  "  Evolution  is 
a  new  religion,  the  religion  of  the  future."  There  are 
many  definitions  of  religion,  but  evolution  does  not  fit 
any  of  them.  It  is  no  more  a  religion  than  gravitation 
is.  One  may  imagine  that  some  enthusiastic  follower  of 


74  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

Newton  may,  for  the  first  time,  have  seen  the  majestic 
order  of  the  solar  system,  may  have  felt  how  futile  was 
the  old  notion  of  guiding  angels,  one  for  each  planet  to 

hold  it  up  in  space.     He  may  have  re- 
Evolution  not  a      cdved  h.s  dear  yision    f    h       . 
religion. 

relations   of  the  planets,    each   forever 

falling  toward  the  sun  and  toward  one  another,  each  one 
by  the  same  force  forever  preserved  from  collision. 
Such  a  man  might  have  exclaimed,  "  Great  is  gravita- 
tion; it  is  the  new  religion,  the  religion  of  the  future!  " 
In  such  manner,  men  trained  in  dead  traditions,  once 
brought  to  a  clear  insight  of  the  noble  simplicity  and 
adequacy  of  the  theory  of  evolution,  may  have  exclaimed, 
"  Great  is  evolution ;  it  is  the  new  religion,  the  religion 
of  the  future  !  " 

But  evolution  is  religion  in  the  same  sense  that  every 
truth  of  the  physical  universe  must  be  religion.  That 
which  is  true  is  the  truest  thing  in  the  world,  and  the 
recognition  of  the  infinite  soundness  at  the  heart  of  the 
universe  is  an  inseparable  part  of  any  worthy  religion. 

But,  whether  religion  or  not,  the  truths  of  evolution 
must  be  their  own  witness.  They  can  be  neither 

strengthened  nor  controverted  by  any 
Science  its  own  authorit  which  k  in  th  name 

witness.  .,  y 

of  philosophy  or  of  theology  or  of  re- 
ligion or  of  reason.  "Roma  locuta  est ;  causa  finita  esf" 
is  not  a  dictum  which  science  can  regard.  Her  causes 
are  never  finished.  No  power  on  earth  can  give  before- 
hand the  answer  to  her  questions.  Her  only  court  of 
appeal  is  the  experience  of  man. 


III. 

THE  ELEMENTS  OF  ORGANIC  EVOLUTION. 

ALL  the  laws  of  life,  whatever  their  nature,  are  valid 
throughout  the  organic  world.  They  control  the  life 
processes  of  man,  those  of  the  lower  animals,  and  those 
of  "our  brother  organisms,  the  plants."  They  extend 
to  each  in  its  degree.  The  fact  that  the  laws  of  hered- 
ity, for  example,  extend  unchanged  in  essence  from  one 
extreme  of  organic  life  to  another  is  most  vital  to  our 
understanding  of  the  nature  of  life.  For  such  homology 
as  this,  for  any  fact  of  homology  whatsoever,  we  have 
found  but  one  cause,  the  influence  of  common  descent. 

There  are  many  elements  or  factors  which  enter  into 
the  processes  of  organic  evolution,  and  they  stand  in 
varied  relations  to  one  another.  It  is  not  possible  to 
make  a  classification  of  them  in  which  there  shall  not 
be  inequality  and  overlapping  of  elements.  For  the 
purpose  of  our  present  discussion  we  may  group  these 
forces  and  factors  under  eight  principal  heads. 

I.  Heredity. — This  is  the  "  law  of  persistence  in  a  se- 
ries of  organisms."  Throughout  Nature  each  creature 
tends  to  reproduce  its  own  qualities  and  those  of  its  an- 
cestors. "  Like  begets  like."  Creatures  resemble  their 
ancestors.  The  germ  cell  specialized  for  purposes  of 
reproduction  is  capable  in  its  development  "  of  repeat- 
ing the  whole  with  the  precision  of  a  work  of  art." 
Heredity  is  the  great  conservative  force  of  evolution. 

75 


76  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

Its  influence  is  shown  in  the  persistence  of  type,  in  the 
existence  of  broad  homologies  among  living  forms,  in 
the  possibility  of  natural  systems  of  classification  in 
any  group,  in  the  retention  of  vestigial  organs,  in  ttye 
early  development  and  subsequent  obliteration  of  out- 
worn structures  once  useful  to  the  race  or  type. 

The  physical  basis  of  heredity  has  been  in  recent 
years  the  subject  of  many  elaborate  investigations.  The 
complete  homology  of  the  germ  cell  with  the  one-celled 
animals,  or  protozoa,  is  now  generally  recognised,  and 
there  is  large  reason  to  believe  that  in  the  bands  and 
loops  of  the  nucleus  of  the  germ  cell  is  found  the  visible 
vehicle  by  which  hereditary  tendencies  are  transmitted. 

II.  Irritability. — All  living  beings  are  affected  by 
their  environment.  Living  matter  must  always  respond 
in  some  degree  to  every  external  stimulus.  All  living 
beings  are  moved  by  or  react  from  every  phase  of  their 
surroundings.  The  nervous  system  and  its  associated 
sense  organs  are  directly  related  to  the  conditions  of 
life.  They  are  concessions  made  to  the  environment. 
The  power  of  motion,  whatever  it  may  be,  requires  the 
guidance  obtained  from  the  impressions  made  by  ex- 
ternal things.  In  all  animals  this  knowledge,  whatever 
its  degree  of  completeness,  tends  to  work  itself  out  in 
action.  In  plants  the  same  thing  is  in  some  degree 
true.  The  essential  difference  is  that,  having  no  power 
of  locomotion,  the  plant  is  without  a  general  sensorium. 
The  parts  that  move — growing  rootlets,  tips  of  branches, 
and  the  like — have  sensibility  and  power  of  motion  in 
the  same  series  of  cells.  The  animal,  a  colony  of  cells 
which  move  as  a  whole,  has  a  specialized  nervous  sys- 
tem which  guides  the  whole. 

As  a  rule,  the  environment  does  not  act  directly  on 
the  individual.  Its  influence  is  felt  chiefly  in  modifying 
its  action,  in  increasing,  diminishing,  or  changing  its 


THE    ELEMENTS   OF   ORGANIC   EVOLUTION. 


77 


efforts.  The  effects  of  environment  are  practically  rec- 
ognised in  processes  of  education,  of  agriculture,  the 
care  and  nurture  of  men  and  of  horses  and  trees  and 
wheat.  Evil  surroundings  produce  evil  effects.  Easy 
surroundings,  reducing  the  stimulus  to  effort,  tend  to 
produce  organic  degeneration.  In  larger  ways  response 
to  environment  produces  a  long  series  of  "  concessions." 
A  character  or  condition  in  itself  of  the  nature  of  a  re- 
sponse to  outside  stimulus  may  be  called  a  concession. 
Among  such  concessions  are  the  skin,  the  eyes,  the 
brain,  the  sense  of  pain,  in  fact,  in  the  ultimate  analysis, 
every  organ  and  every  function  of  the  body.  For  with- 
out environment  all  these  would  be  unnecessary.  Their 
existence  would  be  inconceivable. 

The  fitness  by  which  organisms  have  been  perpetu- 
ated is  simply  obedience  or  adaptation.  Those  which 
survive  are  fitted  to  the  conditions  of  life.  In  other 
words,  they  are  obedient  to  these  conditions.  Hence 
we  may  define  the  process  as  one  of  the  survival  of  the 
obedient.  The  force  which  commands  obedience  is  that 
of  the  environment,  and  the  obedience  demanded  is 
that  of  such  a  reaction  or  relation  to  this  environment 
as  will  not  obstruct  the  processes  of  life. 

Every  form  or  phase  of  obedience  shows  itself  as 
adaptation.  Every  adaptation  is  a  concession  to  the 
actual  environment  on  the  one  hand,  to 
£f°ence  the  laws  of  life  on  the  other.  The  func- 

tion of  the  eye,  for  example,  is  to  give 
information  as  to  the  nature  of  objects  more  or  less  re- 
mote from  the  organism.  The  purpose  of  giving  this 
knowledge  is  to  enable  the  organism  to  act  upon  it. 
To  be  able  to  act  demands  that  the  action  must  be  safe. 
If  the  creature  could  not  act,  it  would  have  no  need  for 
such  knowledge.  If  its  acts  were  not  in  accord  with 
knowledge,  the  knowledge  would  be  useless.  If  there 


78  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

were  no  break  in  the  uniformity  of  the  environment, 
there  would  be  no  need  of  such  knowledge.  If  there 
were  no  variation  in  lights  and  shadows,  the  eye  would 
be  powerless  to  bring  information.  The  senses  deal 
with  changes  or  breaks  in  reality  rather  than  with  reali- 
ties themselves.  Because,  in  action,  the  organism  must 
be  obedient  to  the  demands  of  its  environment,  it  is  the 
function  of  the  eye  to  make  known  these  demands. 
The  existence  of  the  eye  is  therefore  a  concession  to  the 
environment.  A  concession  of  like  nature  is  the  brain 
itself,  of  which  the  eye  and  the  sense  organs  in  general 
may  be  considered  as  prolongations.  These  appendages 
of  the  brain  carry  to  it  truth  of  varying  kind  or  degree. 
This  truth  as  to  external  nature  furnishes  the  basis  of 
that  obedience  which  in  the  animal  expresses  itself  in 
action. 

The  respiratory  apparatus  is  an  adaptation  for  the 
purpose  of  purifying  the  blood  from  the  waste  produced 
in  the  processes  of  life.  It  is  a  concession  on  the  one 
hand  to  the  demands  of  life  in  cell  and  tissue,  and  on 
the  other  hand  to  the  nature  of  the  surrounding  medium. 
A  change  in  the  atmosphere  would  demand  a  correspond- 
ing change  in  the  organs  of  breathing.  If  such  a  con- 
cession were  impossible,  the  species  in  question  would 
become  extinct,  as  its  individuals  would  perish.  If  the 
concessions  necessary  to  continued  existence  should  in- 
volve changes  in  other  organs,  the  process  of  the  sur- 
vival of  the  obedient  would  in  time  produce  these 
changes. 

If  there  were  no  surrounding  medium  there  would  be 
no  organ  of  respiration.  If  there  were  no  light  there 
would  be  no  organ  of  vision.  If  there  were  no  sound 
there  would  be  no  ear.  If  there  were  no  motion  there 
would  be  no  need  for  knowledge,  and  therefore  no  sen- 
sation. If  there  were  no  power  of  locomotion  there 


THE    ELEMENTS   OF   ORGANIC   EVOLUTION. 


79 


would  be  no  sensorium.  If  there  were  no  environment 
there  would  be  no  concessions  to  it.  Without  conces- 
sion there  would  be  no  specialization  of  functions  or 
organs.  Without  variation  in  environment  there  could 
be  no  choice  in  action.  The  concessions  to  the  environ- 
ment constitute,  therefore,  practically  the  whole  structure 
of  any  animal  and  the  whole  of  the  functions  of  its  life. 
It  is  in  the  response  to  environment,  the  concession,  the 
adaptation,  the  specialization,  that  the  progress  of  life 
consists.  It  is  in  characters  thus  produced  that  man  and 
the  higher  animals  differ  from  the  protozoa.  Even  the 
protozoan  has  its  concessions.  The  phenomenon  of 
growth  causes  the  substance  of  the  one-celled  animal  to 
increase  faster  than  its  absorptive  power.  The  waste  of 
the  body  varies  as  the  substance — that  is,  as  the  cube 
of  the  diameter  of  the  creature.  The  absorptive  power 
of  its  surface  must  increase  as  the  square  of  the  diameter 
— that  is,  as  the  surface.  Hence,  a  one-celled  animal 
passing  a  given  small  size  must  either  starve  to  death 
or  else  make  some  concession  to  its  surroundings. 
This  concession  is  reproduction — the  one-celled  crea- 
ture must  split  into  two  animals.  This  increases  the 
digestive  power,  with  no  increase  of  substance.  Even 
the  presence  of  skin  on  a  protozoan  is  a  concession  to 
its  surroundings.  That  a  given  protozoan  is  developed 
with  an  outside  covering  shows  that  natural  selection 
has  been  long  at  work  on  its  ancestry  in  preparing  such 
a  concession  to  external  demands. 

A  creature  which  had  known  no  environment  and 
which  had  inherited  no  concession  would  be  formless  and 
structureless.  It  could  be  little  if  anything  more  than 
an  organic  molecule,  or  at  the  most  a  nebulous  mist  of 
organic  molecules  without  parts  or  form  or  function. 
We  know  no  such  nebulous  life  as  this.  All  the  ani- 
mals and  plants  on  the  records  of  science  show  traces  of 
7 


So  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

a  long  ancestral  history.  Their  bodies  are  full  of  con- 
cessions to  environment,  and  their  functions  are  all  in 
the  line  of  obedience  to  those  conditions  in  life  in  which 
their  ancestors  have  been  thrown. 

We  recognise  that  man  is  the  highest  in  structure 
among  living  beings.  This  fact  implies  that  in  his  phys- 
ical structure  are  the  greatest  concessions  to  environ- 
ment. In  his  functions  the  most  perfect  obedience  is 
made  possible.  His  power  of  choice  among  competing 
lines  of  action  but  emphasizes  the  need  of  choosing  the 
best  action.  The  best  action  is  the  safe  action — safe 
for  the  individual,  safe  for  the  species,  for  only  those 
races  survive  who  care  for  their  young  as  they  care  for 
themselves. 

The  greatness  of  the  human  intellect  depends  on  the 
progressive  concessions  to  environment  by  which  the 
human  brain  through  the  ages  has  been  gradually 
built  up. 

III.  Individuality. — No  two  organisms  are  exactly 
alike.  There  is  in  each  individual  of  whatever  species 
"  a  divine  initiative  "  which  prevents  it  from  being  the 
slavish  copy  of  any  which  have  gone  before.  The  "  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest  "  rests  on  the  existence  of  different 
degrees  and  kinds  of  fitness.  This  it  is  the  part  of  the 
laws  of  variation  to  produce.  Every  step  in  divergence 
or  specialization  gives  room  for  more  life.  The  abun- 
dance of  life  is  dependent  upon  its  variety.  Thus  the 
world  is  never  full,  for  there  is  always  room  for  organ- 
isms better  or  differently  adapted  to  each  set  of  its 
varied  conditions.  The  arrangement  of  double  parent- 
age tends  to  promote  variety  in  life.  Each  new  indi- 
vidual has  all  the  ancestors  of  its  father  as  well  as  all 
those  of  its  mother,  and  with  each  one  these  are  brought 
into  new  combinations.  The  process  of  amphimixis,  the 
mingling  of  the  hereditary  characters  of  the  two  germ 


THE   ELEMENTS   OF   ORGANIC   EVOLUTION.       gl 

cells,  male  and  female,  to  form  a  new  fertilized  cell,  has 
as  its  essential  function  the  promotion  of  variation. 
The  processes  of  karyokinesis,  the  subdivision  of  the 
nuclear  material  in  the  formation  of  a  new  cell,  tend  in 
the  same  direction.  By  the  result  of  the  subdivisions 
incident  in  forming  the  sperm  cell  or  the  ovum,  no  one 
of  these  is  left  exactly  like  any  other.  From  this  point 
of  view  we  say  that  variation  is,  as  Professor  Osborn  has 
pointed  out,  "in  reality  a  phase  of  heredity."  The 
same  structures  that  provide  for  the  continuance  of  the 
species  prevent  the  actual  repetition  of  the  individual. 

Besides  these  sources  of  germinal  variation  there  are 
the  forces  or  laws  which  produce  acceleration  or  retar- 
dation in  growth.  Much  of  the  advance  in  power  or 
specialization  among  organisms  comes  from  the  saving 
of  time  in  the  process  of  development.  As  growth  goes 
on,  the  forms  we  call  lower  pass  slowly  through  the 
.various  stages  of  life.  Their  development  is  finished 
before  any  high  degree  of  specialization  is  reached. 
The  embryo  of  the  higher  form  passes  through  the  same 
course,  but  with  a  rapidity  in  some  degree  proportioned 
to  its  future  possibility.  Less  time  is  spent  on  non- 
essentials,  and  we  may  say  that  by  the  saving  of  time 
and  force  it  is  enabled  to  push  on  to  higher  devel- 
opment. 

The  gill  structures  of  the  fish  by  which  its  blood  is 
purified  by  contact  with  air  dissolved  in  water  last  its 
whole  lifetime.  The  fish  never  outgrows  this  structure 
and  never  acquires  the  function  of  breathing  atmospheric 
air.  The  frog  is  fish-like  for  a  period  in  its  life,  but  the 
development  is  accelerated,  organs  for  breathing  atmos- 
pheric air  are  produced,  and  the  gills  become  atrophied 
and  disappear  from  view.  Their  traces  remain,  for  by 
the  law  of  heredity  no  creature  can  ever  wholly  let  go 
of  its  past.  That  its  ancestors  once  breathed  in  water 


82  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

can  never  be  forgotten.  With  bird  or  mammal  the  ac- 
celeration is  still  more  marked,  and  the  gill  structure 
has  passed  into  atrophy  before  the  egg  is  hatched  or  the 
animal  born.  The  force  of  acceleration  hurries  the  em- 
bryo along  through  these  temporary  stages,  and  with 
this  shortening  of  useless  steps  comes  the  possibility  of 
higher  development. 

Conversely  retarded  development  brings  about  de- 
generation, while  variations  in  any  direction  with  species 
or  organs  has  the  larger  purpose  of  increasing  variety, 
of  promoting  individuality. 

Similar  results  are  brought  about  by  variations  in 
use  or  in  effort.  The  organ  which  is  used  thrives,  while 
the  unused  organ  disappears  with  its  function.  These 
changes  affect  the  individual  vitally  and  directly. 
Whether  they  are  transmitted  from  generation  to  gen- 
eration in  any  degree  is  still  unknown.  Characters  re- 
sulting from  the  use,  effort,  or  experience  of  the  indi- 
vidual are  known  as  acquired  characters.  Such  acquired 
characters  are  the  strong  arm  of  the  blacksmith,  the 
skilled  hand  of  the  artist,  the  trained  ear  of  the  musi- 
cian. These  characters  are  not  subject  to  inheritance 
by  the  laws  of  heredity  in  the  same  way  or  in  the  same 
degree  that  inborn  characters  are.  Nevertheless,  it  is 
claimed  by  a  large  number  of  evolutionists,  the  so-called 
Neo-Lamarckian  school,  that  there  is  a  law  of  the  trans- 
mission of  acquired  characters.  Such  a  law  was  formu- 
lated by  Lamarck  as  his  fourth  law  of  evolution  in  these 
words : 

"All  that  has  been  acquired,  begun,  or  changed  in 
the  structure  of  individuals  in  their  lifetime  is  pre- 
served in  reproduction  and  transmitted  to  the  new  in- 
dividuals which  spring  from  those  who  have  inherited 
the  change." 

In  the  v/ords  of  Herbert  Spencer,  the  leader  of  the 


THE   ELEMENTS   OF   ORGANIC    EVOLUTION.       83 

Neo-Lamarckians,  "  Change  of  function  produces  changes 
of  structure;  it  is  a  tenable  hypothesis  that  changes  of 
structure  so  produced  are  inheritable." 

The  transmission  of  acquired  characters  is  still  one 
of  the  hypothetical  factors  of  evolution,  but  we  may 
here  give  it  only  this  passing  reference.  Among  the 
remaining  factors  which  promote  variety  in  life  must  be 
reckoned  variation  in  environment.  No  two  organisms 
can  have  exactly  the  same  surroundings,  and  the  sur- 
roundings modify  development.  With  this  goes  the 
destruction  of  the  unadapted,  the  various  phases  of  the 
great  sifting  process  known  collectively  as  natural 
selection.  The  "  survival  of  the  fittest "  must  rest  on 
the  existence  of  the  fittest.  The  "origin  of  the  fittest" 
involves  a  series  of  difficult  problems,  some  of  them  still 
unsolved. 

IV.  Natural  Selection. — The  great  motive  power  of 
organic  evolution  is  the  force  or  process  of  natural  selec- 
tion. In  the  conditions  of  life  those  organisms  last  long- 
est which  are  best  fitted  to  these  conditions.  The  term 
"natural  selection  "  originated  from  the  use  of  the  word 
"selection"  by  breeders  of  animals  to  indicate  the 
process  of  "  weeding  out "  by  which  they  improve  their 
breeds.  For  the  method  by  which  in  Nature  a  new  spe- 
cies is  brought  into  existence  seems  to  be  precisely  par- 
allel to  that  by  which  we  may  artificially  produce  a  new 
breed  of  cows  or  of  dogs,  a  new  race  of  pigeons,  or  a 
new  variety  of  roses. 

Throughout  all  Nature  the  number  of  organisms 
brought  into  life  is  far  in  excess  of  the  number  of  those 
which  can  come  to  maturity.  All  live  that  can  live, 
and  in  general  those  that  can  not  live  are  those  whose 
individual  variations  are  least  favourable.  Only  a  small 
minority  of  the  whole  reach  their  full  growth.  The 
destruction  of  the  others,  to  use  Bergen's  words,  is 


84  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

"not  indiscriminate,  but  it  will  first  and  mainly  com- 
prise those  individuals  least  able  to  resist  attack." 

This  is  the  essential  fact  upon  which  rests  Herbert 
Spencer's  law  of  "the  survival  of  the  fittest."  At  the 
same  time  the  survival  of  the  fittest  does  not  tell  the 
whole  story  of  natural  selection.  But  a  small  part  of 
the  actual  characters  of  animals  and  plants  can  be 
traced  directly  and  solely  to  the  principle  of  utility. 
The  survival  of  the  existing  likewise  is  a  large  element 
in  the  great  process  of  natural  selection.  Thus,  a  water 
bird  has  webbed  feet.  The  webbing  is  useful  in  swim- 
ming. Its  presence  is  due  to  its  utility.  The  survival 
of  the  fittest  in  water  birds  may  mean  the  survival  of 
the  best  swimmer,  and  the  best  swimmer  is  the  one  with 
the  most  useful  webbing.  But  a  character  quite  as  per- 
sistent may  be  a  perfectly  useless  one,  as  a  special  ar- 
rangement of  the  plates  on  the  tarsus,  or  the  flattening 
of  a  single  claw.  This  may  have  in  itself  no  utility  at 
all.  Its  presence  may  not  be  due  to  the  survival  of  the 
fittest.  It  persists  because  such  a  character  was  pos- 
sessed by  some  ancestor.  It  has  been  retained  through 
heredity.  The  nails  must  have  some  form,  the  plates 
some  arrangement,  the  wing  coverts  some  colour.  This 
ancestral  form  or  colour  is  as  good  as  some  other  would 
be.  Hence  comes  its  persistence,  which  is  simply  a  sur- 
vival of  the  existing,  no  question  of  relative  fitness  being 
involved. 

From  the  "survival  of  the  existing"  arises  the  per- 
sistence of  those  forms  which  actually  inhabit  a  given 
district  whether  they  be  ideally  the  fittest  or  not.  By 
such  means  the  faunae  of  isolated  regions  are  perpetu- 
ated, the  barriers  of  land  or  sea  or  climate  excluding 
them  from  competition  with  the  "  fitter"  organisms  that 
may  inhabit  other  regions.  "  Possession  is  nine  points 
of  the  law  "  of  organic  survival,  as  it  is  said  to  be  else- 


THE   ELEMENTS   OF   ORGANIC   EVOLUTION.       85 

where.  Possession  and  not  abstract  fitness  has  deter- 
mined the  nature  of  the  island  faunae,  lake  faunae,  and 
isolated  faunae  and  florae  generally.  This  is  shown  by 
the  rapidity  by  which  the  species  composing  these  be- 
come extinct  when  brought  into  competition  with  the 
more  persistent  forms  which  the  continent  has  developed. 

But  as  all  this  represents  a  natural  adjustment  pro- 
duced by  natural  relations  as  distinguished  from  artifi- 
cial selection  produced  by  the  act  of  man,  we  may  still 
include  it  under  the  head  of  natural  selection.  What- 
ever result  is  brought  about  in  the  struggle  for  exist- 
ence by  the  action  of  natural  forces  without  human  aid 
is  natural  selection  in  the  sense  in  which  Darwin  used 
the  term. 

The  term  "  fitness "  as  used  in  these  discussions 
means,  of  course,  only  the  power  to  win  in  the  peculiar 
kind  of  contest  that  may  be  in  question,  no  moral  ele- 
ment and  no  element  of  general  progress  being  necessa- 
rily involved. 

In  the  question  of  fitness  or  unfitness  the  question 
of  goodness  or  badness  is  only  incidentally  concerned. 
To  be  fit,  in  the  biological  sense,  is  not  necessarily  to 
be  good,  except  as  in  the  long  run  altruism  promotes 
individual  power  and  strength. 

The  struggle  for  existence  appears  under  a  three- 
fold form :  the  struggle  of  creatures  with  like  creatures, 
the  struggle  with  unlike  forms,  and  the  struggle  with 
the  conditions  of  environment.  In  general,  when  the 
environment  is  most  favourable,  the  competition  of  in- 
dividual with  individual  will  be  most  severe.  Where 
this  environment  is  alike  favourable  for  many  different 
forms  or  species,  the  struggle  between  species  and  spe- 
cies becomes  intensified.  Where  conditions  are  adverse, 
the  number  of  forms  able  to  maintain  themselves  will 
be  smaller,  but  those  which  acquire  adaptation,  not 


86  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

being  crowded  by  competing  forms,  often  exist  in  count- 
less numbers. 

The  distribution  of  fishes  may  illustrate  this.  The 
most  favourable  condition  for  fish  life  is  found  about 
coral  reefs,  in  the  clear,  equable  waters  of  the  tropics. 
Here  many  forms  find  favourable  conditions,  but  the 
competition  among  their  individuals  is  severe.  In 
arctic  waters  but  few  species  appear ;  the  most  are  ex- 
cluded by  the  temperature  itself.  But  these  few  forms 
are  represented  each  by  myriads  of  individuals.  Only 
a  few  kinds  can  enter  into  competition.  The  struggle  is 
not  that  of  species  against  species;  it  is  the  survival  of 
those  that  can  react  from  the  environment,  that  can 
maintain  themselves  against  the  hard  conditions  of  life. 
But  these  conditions  are  not  hard  to  these  individuals 
who  survive.  The  arctic  life  is  the  life  they  are  fitted 
for.  The  struggle  for  existence  is  not  felt  as  a  stress  or 
strain  by  the  adapted. 

Hence  comes  the  fact  noticed  by  Darwin,  that,  while 
all  intelligent  men  admit  the  struggle  for  existence,  very 
few  realize  it.  Men  in  general  are  fitted  to  the  struggle 
endured  by  their  ancestors,  as  they  are  fitted  to  the 
pressure  of  the  air.  They  do  not  realize  the  pressure 
itself,  but  only  its  fluctuations.  Hence  it  comes  that 
many  writers  have  supposed  that  the  struggle  for  exist- 
ence belonged  only  to  animals  and  that  man  is  or  should 
be  exempt  from  it.  Competition  has  been  identified  with 
injustice,  fraud,  or  trickery,  and  it  has  been  supposed 
that  some  act  of  legislation  would  put  an  end  to  it  for- 
ever. But  competition  is  inseparable  from  life.  The 
struggle  for  existence  may  be  hidden  in  social  conven- 
tions, but  it  can  never  be  extinguished.  Nor  should  it 
be,  for  it  is  the  essential  force  in  the  progress  of  life. 

Malthus's  law  of  population,  often  quoted,  is  in  sub- 
stance this :  Man  tends  to  increase  by  a  geometrical 


THE   ELEMENTS   OF   ORGANIC   EVOLUTION.       g/ 

ratio — that  is,  by  multiplication.  The  increase  of  food 
supply  is  by  arithmetical  ratio — that  is,  by  addition; 
hence,  whatever  may  be  the  ratio  of  increase,  a  geo- 
metrical progression  will  sooner  or  later  outrun  an  arith- 
metical one.  Hence,  sooner  or  later  the  world  must 
be  overstocked,  did  not  vice,  misery,  or  prudence  come 
in  as  checks,  reducing  the  ratio  of  multiplication.  This 
law  has  been  criticised  as  a  partial  truth,  so  far  as  man 
is  concerned.  This  means  simply  that  there  are  factors 
also  in  evolution  other  than  those  recognised  by  Mal- 
thus.  Nevertheless,  Malthus's  law  is  a  sound  statement 
of  one  great  factor.  And  this  law  is  simply  the  ex- 
pression of  the  struggle  for  existence  as  it  appears 
among  men. 

In  a  world  limited  in  extent  and  in  possibilities,  any 
rate  of  increase  among  organisms  must  bring  about  a 
struggle  for  existence.  The  ratio  of  increase  is  a  mat- 
ter of  minor  importance,  for  each  species  would  fill  up 
the  whole  world  at  last.  It  is  the  ratio  of  actual  net 
increase  above  loss  which  determines  the  fate  of  a  spe- 
cies. Those  increase  and  maintain  themselves  in  which 
the  death  rate  does  not  exceed  the  rate  of  increase. 
Those  who  live  "  beyond  their  means  "  must  sooner  or 
later  perish. 

Thus  it  comes  about  through  natural  selection  that 
there  is  everywhere  seemingly  perfect  adaptation,  the 
"  fitting  of  the  dough  to  the  pan,"  of  the  river  to  its  bed. 
But  this  fitting  is  never  wholly  perfect,  for  still  more 
complete  adaptation  may  come ;  and  as  conditions  change 
adaptations  must  change  also.  Progress  follows  organic 
dissatisfaction.  Where  there  is  no  reason  for  change 
there  is  no  progress ;  degeneration  may  set  in,  and  de- 
generation of  one  sort  or  another  follows  withdrawal 
from  the  current  of  the  struggle  for  existence.  "  What- 
ever is  desirable,"  says  Weismann,  "  becomes  necessary 


88  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

as  soon  as  it  is  possible."  Whatever  is  not  needed  tends 
to  decline  and  disappear. 

In  our  discussion  of  social  evolution  we  need  some- 
times to  remember  that  the  very  perfection  of  society 
must  always  appear  as  imperfection ;  for  a  highly  devel- 
oped society  is  dynamic.  It  is  moving  on.  A  static 
society,  no  matter  how  perfect  it  may  seem,  whether  a 
Utopia,  Icaria,  or  City  of  the  Sun,  is  in  a  condition  of  ar- 
rested development.  Its  growth  has  ceased,  and  its  per- 
fection is  that  of  death.  The  most  highly  advanced 
social  conditions  are  the  most  unstable.  The  individual 
man  counts  for  most  under  those  conditions;  for  the 
growth  of  the  individual  man  is  the  only  justification  for 
the  institutions  of  which  he  forms  part.  The  most 
highly  developed  organism  shows  the  greatest  imperfec- 
tions. The  most  perfect  adaptation  to  conditions  needs 
readaptation,  as  conditions  themselves  speedily  change. 
The  dream  of  a  static  millennium,  when  struggle  and 
change  shall  be  over,  when  all  shall  be  secure  and  happy, 
finds  no  warrant  in  our  knowledge  of  man  and  the  world. 
Self-realization  in  life  is  only  possible  when  self-per- 
dition is  also  possible.  When  cruelty  and  hate  are 
excluded  by  force,  charity  and  helpfulness  will  go  with 
them.  Strength  and  virtue  have  their  roots  within  man, 
not  without.  They  may  be  checked  but  they  can  not 
be  greatly  stimulated  by  institutions  and  statutes. 

In  this  connection  we  have  also  to  remember  that 
the  struggle  for  existence  in  human  society  does  not  mean 
brutality.  It  is  not  necessarily  a  war  to  the  knife,  nor 
a  struggle  with  fists  nor  with  balances  of  trade.  The 
elements  of  ultimate  success  in  the  struggle  are  not 
teeth,  nor  claws,  nor  brute  strength,  nor  trickery. 
Through  all  the  ages  love  has  been  stronger  than  force ; 
and  those  creatures  who  could  help  each  other"  have 
been  stronger  than  those  who  could  only  fight. 


THE   ELEMENTS   OF   ORGANIC   EVOLUTION.       89 

By  good  or  right  in  human  development  we  mean 
simply  the  opportunity  for  more  life  or  higher  life. 
That  is  good  which  makes  me  strong  and  gives  strength 
to  my  neighbours.  Might  does  not  make  right,  but  what- 
ever is  right  will  justify  itself  in  persistence,  and  per- 
sistence is  strength.  That  which  is  weak  dies.  We 
only  know  God's  purposes  by  what  he  permits.  That 
which  persists  and  grows  must  be  in  line  with  such  pur- 
poses. A  law  is  only  an  observed  generalization  of 
what  is.  There  is  no  law  which  reads,  "  This  and  this 
ought  to  be,  but  is  not." 

V.  Self -activity. — Another  factor  in  evolution  is  fur- 
nished by  the  functional  activity  of  the  individual. 
Nature  is  a  thrifty  investor.  She  withdraws  all  unused 
capital.  The  old  parable  of  the  talents,  wherein  the 
owner  of  the  unused  talent  lost  all  that  he  had,  describes 
the  workings  of  Nature.  The  unused  organ  loses  its 
power  and  dwindles  away.  What  comes  out  of  a  man  de- 
termines his  character.  What  he  has  done  in  the  past 
furnishes  the  law  of  his  future.  The  essence  of  indi- 
vidual character  building,  with  the  lower  animals  as  with 
man,  lies  in  action.  Whatever  he  is  he  must  make  of 
himself.  Heredity  only  furnishes  the  tools,  and  the  en- 
vironment is  the  leverage.  Nor  is  this  great  law  con- 
fined to  animals  alone.  Even  with  plants  the  function 
must  justify  the  organ.  The  branch  which  does  not 
carry  sap  withers  and  dies.  The  fruit  which  does  not 
ripen  is  cast  to  the  ground.  In  a  sense,  too,  the  func- 
tion must  precede  the  organ.  Where  something  is  to 
be  done,  there  will  arise  a  special  method  of  doing  it, 
and  the  organ  which  supplies  this  better  method  will 
survive  in  natural  selection. 

Among  the  higher  animals  functional  activity  is  the 
basis  of  individual  happiness.  There  is  no  permanent 
feeling  of  joy  except  through  functional  activity.  Dis- 


9o 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


sipation,  stimulation,  tricks  on  the  nervous  system  of 
any  sort  whatever  give  only  a  counterfeit  happiness. 
Subjective  joys  are  followed  by  subjective  misery. 
There  is  "  no  pleasure  in  them."  "  The  very  fiends 
weave  ropes  of  sand  rather  than  taste  pure  hell  in  idle- 
ness." 

There  is  a  wild  joy  in  "  Nature  red  in  tooth  and 
claw  "  that  is  not  found  in  static  life.  And  while  higher 
development  brings  higher  pleasures,  these  bear  the 
same  relation  to  self-activity.  The  pressure  of  envi- 
ronment gives  only  pain  in  itself.  Ennui  is  chronic 
pain,  Nature's  warning  against  the  dry  rot  of  functional 
inactivity.  To  enjoy  life,  man  or  animal  must  be  doing, 
working,  thinking,  fighting,  loving,  helping — something 
positive.  And  no  thought  or  feeling  of  the  mind  is  com- 
plete till  it  has  somehow  wrought  itself  into  action. 

VI.  Altruism. — Another  of  the  great  forces  in  or- 
ganic development  is  mutual  help,  or  altruism.  Where 
organisms  come  into  any  sort  of  relation  one  with  an- 
other, there  must  be  some  conditions  more  favourable 
than  others.  The  law  of  altruism  is  the  expression  of 
the  best  relation  of  one  organism  to  another  of  its  own 
kind  or  type.  The  words  good,  better,  are  expressive 
of  human  affairs.  They  are  subjective  terms,  referring 
to  the  welfare  of  the  individual.  In  the  general  sense, 
that  is  good  which  makes  more  or  higher  life  possible. 
That  is  good  in  Nature  which  "  gives  life  more  abun- 
dantly." It  is  good  to  "make  two  blades  of  grass  grow 
where  only  one  grew  before."  It  is  good  also  to  make 
possible  the  growth  of  a  specialized  and  highly  adapted 
form,  where  only  creatures  of  a  lowly  organization  had 
existed  before.  Altruism  is  the  expression  of  the  per- 
manence of  mutual  respect  and  mutual  forbearance. 
The  rule  we  call  golden  is  the  expression  of  strength  as 
well  as  of  right.  It  is  not  true  that  "might  is  right" 


THE    ELEMENTS   OF   ORGANIC   EVOLUTION.       gi 

in  the  narrow  sense  in  which  that  phase  is  commonly 
used  ;  but  it  is  true  that  what  is  right  will  justify  itself 
sooner  or  later  by  becoming  might.  Cruelty,  vice,  and 
selfishness  are  wrong  as  the  expression  of  weakness,  of 
low  vitality,  of  conditions  which  make  abundance  of 
life  impossible. 

Altruism  is  in  no  sense  confined  to  man.  There  is 
no  part  of  the  animal  kingdom  in  which  it  is  unknown, 
no  part  of  the  vegetable  kingdom  without  its  traces. 
Favourable  interrelations  are  possible  wherever  life  is. 
The  expression  of  such  relations  is  altruism. 

It  can  be  shown  that  social  virtues  are  powerful  aids 
to  survival  in  the  struggle  for  existence.  The  race  is 
not  "  to  the  swift  "  nor  "  the  battle  to  the  strong,"  but 
"  to  them  who  can  keep  together."  The  care  of  the 
young  is  a  far  more  effective  agency  in  the  survival  of 
the  species  than  iron  muscles  or  huge  jaws.  The  will- 
ingness to  die  for  the  young  is  a  guarantee  that  the 
young  may  live. 

"  More  ancient  than  competition,"  says  Oscar  Mc- 
Culloch,  "  is  combination.  The  little,  feeble,  fluttering 
folk  of  God,  like  the  spinning  insects,  the  little  mice  in 
the  meadow,  the  rat  in  the  cellar,  the  crane  on  the 
marshes,  or  the  booming  bittern — all  these  have  learned 
that  God's  greatest  word  is  together  and  not  alone. 
He  who  is  striving  to  make  God's  blessing  and  bounty 
possible  to  most  is  stepping  into  line  with  Nature.  The 
selfish  man  is  the  isolated  man." 

Altruism  is  a  robust  sentiment  set  deep  in  the  breast 
of  organic  life,  and  not  in  danger  of  extinction.  It  is 
as  old  as  selfishness  and  as  hard  to  eradicate.  It  no 
more  needs  coddling  than  hunger  does.  It  depends  on 
no  external  sanction,  for  the  creatures  without  altruism 
pass  away,  leaving  no  descendants.  There  is  a  bounty 
on  their  heads,  whether  they  be  wolves  or  hawks  or  men. 


92 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


Altruism  expresses  itself  in  all  that  make  the  human 
life  sane,  joyous,  effective.  Science  is  herself  a  con- 
summate result  of  the  altruism  of  the  ages,  whereby  no 
man's  experiences  belong  to  himself  alone,  but  become 
part  of  the  heritage  of  those  who  follow  him.  Human 
institutions  have  grown  out  of  the  social  instinct.  They 
are  the  fossils  of  past  altruism.  All  forms  of  art,  litera- 
ture, music,  religion,  arise  and  are  developed  through 
mutual  help.  And  while  the  relations  of  altruism  tend 
to  limit  the  freedom  of  the  individual,  it  is  only  through 
such  limitations  that  the  individual  can  develop  in 
security  or  in  realfreedom. 

In  the  very  beginnings  of  life  appear  the  beginnings 
of  altruism.  Among  the  one-celled  animals  or  pro- 
tozoa is  seen  the  rela- 
tion of  mutual  help. 
In  the  conjugation  of 
cells  among  these  crea- 
tures appear  the  begin- 
nings of  the  gigantic 
fact  of  sex.  By  this  pro- 
cess two  minute  one- 
celled  creatures  come 
together,  and  part  of  the 
hereditary  substance  of 
the  one  is  exchanged 
for  that  of  the  other. 
After  this  exchange 
neither  the  one  nor  the 
other  is  exactly  what  it 
was  before.  The  results  of  this  change  are  propagated 
in  the  descendants  of  each.  The  ultimate  purpose  of 
the  exchange  is  to  produce  and  promote  variety  in  life. 
That  is  the  ultimate  purpose  of  the  whole  sex  relation. 
From  the  beginning  to  the  end  it  is  essentially  altruistic. 


FlG.  4. — Conjugation  of  infusoria. 


THE   ELEMENTS   OF   ORGANIC   EVOLUTION. 


93 


It  never  becomes  selfish  except  in  its  perversion.  Its 
perversion  is  its  destruction.  And  from  the  simple  altru- 
istic beginnings  of  the  conjugation  of  cells  in  those 
simple  organisms  arise  with  evolution  all  the  complex 
possibilities  of  love,  conjugal,  filial,  and  parental. 

In  another  way  the  altruistic  tendencies  are  shown 
in  the  aggregation  of  cells.  Among  animals  of  one  cell 
the  ordinary  processes  of  division  give  rise  to  a  new 
organism  for  each  division.  But  if  the  new  cells  formed 
by  such  subdivision  still  remain  attached  to  each  other, 
a  complex  organism  is  built  up.  It  is  thus  that  the 
single  germ  cell  in  the  higher  animals  grows  into  the 
embryo,  and  the  embryo  through  the  stages  of  infancy 
and  youth  into  the  adult  organism. 

The  co-operation  of  the  members  of  the  colony  of 
cells  of  which  the  compound  animal  is  composed  makes 
possible  all  the  various  forms  of  organic  differentiation. 
A  single  cell  is  a  unit,  complete  in  itself  and  inde- 
pendent. All  the  functions  possible  to  it  are  united  in 
a  single  structure.  With  a  complex  organism  the  dif- 
ferent cells  are  gathered  into  groups  to  form  tissues. 
Out  of  these  tissues  different  organs  are  built  up,  and 
each  different  organ  performs  a  distinct  function.  In 
the  compound  structure  of  man  a  multitude  of  cells  are 
joined  to  perform  the  work  of  assimilation,  and  a  host 
of  others  purify  the  blood ;  to  another  multitude  is  as- 
signed the  task  of  locomotion.  Still  others,  of  finer  tex- 
ture, receive  impressions  of  external  things  and  trans- 
mit these  impressions  into  the  phenomena  of  motion. 
Specialization,  differentiation,  organization,  and  the  ex- 
quisite functions  of  nerve  tissue,  are  all  resultants  of  the 
altruistic  co-operation  of  cells.  As  individual  men  under 
altruistic  impulses  unite  together  to  form  societies  and 
states,  so  are  individual  cells  gathered  together  to  form 
the  human  body.  The  conjugation  of  cells  is  a  method 


94 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


by  which  life  is  continued  and  renewed  in  an  endless 
chain  which  death  has  never  broken.  The  aggregation 
of  cells  gives  rise  to  all  that  makes  life  effective.  But 
the  division  of  labour  and  specialization  of  parts  brings 
death  to  the  individual.  Sooner  or  later  the  correlation 
of  parts  must  be  broken  and  the  outworn  individual 
must  give  place  to  one  freshly  formed. 

The  gains  through  altruism  as  a  factor  in  evolution 
can  not  be  overstated.  Love  and  kindness,  specializa- 
tion and  adaptation,  instinct  and  intelligence — all  these 
belong  to  its  biological  results.  In  human  society 
mutual  help  has  given  science,  which  is  the  garnered 
wisdom  of  society.  It  has  given  art,  education,  religion. 
All  these  are  in  one  way  or  another  related  to  the  good 
or  pleasure  of  others.  From  altruism  institutions  arise, 
and  institutions  bring  security  and  effectiveness. 

To  all  this  there  is,  of  necessity,  another  side.  All 
the  gifts  of  the  gods  have  some  drawback  connected 
with  them.  This  is  the  so-called  law  of  compensation. 
Mutual  help  leads  to  mutual  dependence.  Combination 
destroys  absolute  freedom  in  making  freedom  worth 
having.  Alliances  degrade  as  well  as  help,  for  the  needs 
and  functions  of  the  individual  are  lost  in  those  of  the 
alliance.  The  single  cell  is  self-sufficient,  independent, 
and,  until  altruisic  relations  come  in,  immortal.  As 
Weismann  has  shown,  the  subdivision  of  the  single  cell, 
by  which  it  divides  into  two  similar  cells,  is  not  homol- 
ogous with  death.  Death  is  a  necessary  attribute  of 
compound  animals  only.  It  is  the  price  paid  for  special- 
ization. If  it  be  true,  as  is  claimed,  that  the  cells  pre- 
vented from  conjugation  ultimately  die  a  natural  death, 
still  this  death  is  a  price  paid  for  altruism.  It  did  not 
exist  before  combination  became  possible. 

In  like  fashion  the  growth  of  society  has  abridged 
the  freedom  of  the  individual  man  in  making  that  free- 


THE    ELEMENTS   OF   ORGANIC   EVOLUTION. 


95 


dom  worth  having.  Mutual  help  in  society  has  brought 
about  mutual  dependence.  It  has  at  the  same  time 
brought  a  security  and  strength  which  must  be  forever 
impossible  under  purely  individualistic  conditions.  The 
tendency  for  organisms  to  join  together  for  mutual  aid 
is  therefore  one  of  the  primal  tendencies  of  life.  It  is 
involved  in  the  very  definition  of  life  itself.  It  can 
never  become  outworn  or  exhausted.  It  must  in  greater 
and  greater  degree  rule  the  hearts  of  men,  as  men  be- 
come wiser,  purer,  stronger  in  the  progress  of  evolution. 
"  In  the  very  nature  of  things  God  has  made  this  law  of 
mutual  aid  so  strong  that  he  has  impressed  and  stamped 
it  on  the  life  of  everything  that  breathes." 

As  the  cell  is  related  to  the  tissue,  so  is  the  individual 
man  connected  with  society.  The  essential  difference 
is  the  obvious  one  that  the  individual  man  moves,  lives, 
and  dies  as  an  individual,  while  the  individual  cell  is 
confined  to  its  place  by  physical  limitations. 

In  recognising  the  fact  that  the  parallelism  exists, 
it  is  not  necessary  to  push  it  too  far.  From  the  aggre- 
gation of  cells  results  specialization  of  parts,  division  of 
labour  among  organs,  progress,  and  adaptation ;  and 
ultimately  from  the  same  source  springs  the  necessity 
for  organic  death.  Being  bound  together  by  physical 
bonds,  the  wearing  out  of  one  organ  means  the  decay 
of  the  whole.  In  like  manner,  from  the  altruism  of  the 
individual  results  the  strength  of  the  state,  the  division 
of  labour  among  men,  and  the  consequent  increase  of 
effectiveness,  the  progress  of  knowledge,  and  the  ameni- 
ties of  life.  We  do  not  need  to  say  that  a  society  or  a 
nation  must  die  for  like  reasons,  for  its  units  are  bound 
not  by  physical  bonds,  but  by  invisible  forces,  and  the 
wearing  out  of  one  organ  could  not  necessarily  destroy 
the  whole.  But  the  complex  animal  and  the  complex 
society  are  alike  manifestations  of  the  law  of  altruism. 


96 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


And,  as  Dr.  Amos  Griswold  Warner  has  wisely  observed, 
no  species  and  "no  race  ever  became  extinct  through 
an  excess  of  brotherly  love." 

VII.  Isolation. — A  great  factor  in  the  production  of 
variant  forms  is  the  isolation  of  groups  of  individuals 
from  the  mass  of  their  species.  The  barriers  of  the 
earth,  separating  one  group  of  individuals  from  other 
individuals  of  the  same  kind,  cause  them  to  be  exposed 
to  different  influences.  The  reaction  from  environment 
is  different  in  one  case  from  another.  As  a  result,  the 
presence  of  barriers  shows  itself  in  specific  variation. 

Each  species  of  animal  or  plant  tends  to  extend  and 
to  cover  the  world.  That  a  given  species  has  not  occu- 
pied any  certain  area  is  due  to  one  of  three  causes : 
either  (a)  the  species  has  never  entered  the  district ;  or 
(If),  having  entered  it,  it  could  not  maintain  itself ;  or  (^), 
having  maintained  itself  the  changed  conditions  have 
made  of  it  another  species. 

Thus  we  may  say  that  the  reason  why  the  civet  cat 
is  not  found  in  New  England  is  because  it  has  never 
been  able  to  reach  that  district  in  its  movements.  The 
skylark,  which  has  been  brought  there,  has  not  main- 
tained itself  because,  in  the  individual  cases  at  least,  it 
could  not;  while  the  European  rabbit,  introduced  years 
ago  into  Porto  Santo  in  the  Madeiras,  does  not  exist 
because  its  descendants  are  so  much  altered  that  we  can 
not  recognise  them  as  the  same  species. 

With  one  of  these  three  general  propositions,  self- 
evident,  no  doubt,  all  the  facts  of  geographical  distribu- 
tion may  be  connected.  Each  species  extends  its  range 
wherever  it  can,  maintains  itself  if  it  can,  and  undergoes 
change  wherever  its  members  are  brought  into  new 
conditions  or  separated  by  barriers  from  the  mass  of 
their  kind. 

The  characters  to  be  attributed  directly  to  isolation 


THE   ELEMENTS   OF   ORGANIC   EVOLUTION. 


97 


are  for  the  most  part  those  of  minor  importance,  the 
superficial  traits  of  the  species  rather  than  the  deep- 
seated  qualities  of  the  group.  But  these  are  none  the 
less  real,  and  to  this  series  of  influences  much  of  the 
variety  of  the  life  of  the  globe  must  be  attributed. 

The  survival  of  the  existing,  which  is  the  basis  of 
most  of  the  distinctions  between  one  species  and  another, 

is  not  less  real  than  the  survival  of  the 
Survival  of  the  fittest  In  making  up  the  fauna  or  flora 
existing. 

of  any  region,  those  creatures  actually 

present  must  leave  their  qualities  as  an  inheritance.  If 
they  can  not  maintain  themselves,  their  type  passes 
away  as  unfit.  If  they  maintain  themselves  in  isolation, 
their  characters  become  persistent  as  those  of  the  new 
species. 

Still  other  factors  in  organic  evolution  may  be  more 
or  less  clearly  defined,  either  in  connection  with  those 
above  mentioned  or  as  fundamentally  distinct. 

One  of  these  is  the  following:  The  transmission  of 
characters  of  the  parent  as  distinct  from  proper  hered- 
ity. A  starved  hill  of  corn  means  ill- 
nourished  grains.  The  plants  produced 
from  ill-nourished  seeds  may  be  stunted 
by  lack  of  vitality  or  lack  of  starch  without  any  change 
or  deficiency  in  the  germ  itself.  In  like  manner  feeble 
children  may  owe  their  traits  to  the  temporary  illnesses 
of  a  strong  mother.  A  sound  mind  demands  a  sound 
body,  and  a  sound  body  is  necessary  to  well-nourished 
offspring.  With  the  characters  of  the  germ  cell  these 
conditions  have  nothing  to  do,  and  their  homologue  is 
found  in  such  defects  as  insufficiency  of  milk. 

VIII.  Inheritance  of  Acquired  Characters. — The  in- 
heritance of  acquired  characters  mentioned  above,  a 
process  of  transmission  possibly  different  from  germ 
heredity,  has  been  lately  the  subject  of  much  discussion. 


Qg  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

To  this  the  present  writer  does  not  care  to  add.  Ac- 
cording to  some  writers,  as  Herbert  Spencer,  this  inheri- 
tance is  a  prominent  factor  in  evolution  itself.  Accord- 
ing to  August  Weismann,  it  is  simply  a  myth  invented 
to  explain  phenomena  the  causes  of  which  are  unknown. 
Most  of  the  arguments  on  both  sides,  thus  far,  have 
been  theoretical  only,  based  on  no  inductive  evidence, 
and  in  science  arguments  of  this  sort  are  without  value. 
Both  suppositions  rest,  as  Prof.  Henry  Fairfield  Os- 
born  has  said,  less  "in  fact  than  the  logical  improbabili- 
ties of  other  theories."  "  Certainly,"  Professor  Osborn 
goes  on  to  say,  "  we  shall  not  assist  research  with  any 
evolution  factor  grounded  upon  logic  rather  than  upon 
inductive  demonstration.  A  retrograde  chapter  in  the 
history  of  science  would  open  if  we  should  do  so,  and 
should  accept,  as  established,  laws  which  rest  so  largely 
upon  negative  reasoning.  Darwin's  survival  of  the  fit- 
test we  may  alone  regard  as  absolutely  demonstated  as 
a  real  factor  without  committing  ourselves  as  to  the  ori- 
gin of  fitness.  The  (next)  step  is  to 
°Wn  recognise  that  there  may  be  an  unknown 
factor  or  factors  which  will  cause  quite 
as  great  a  surprise  as  Darwin's.  The  feeling  that  there 
is  such  first  came  to  the  writer  in  1890,  in  considering 
the  want  of  an  explanation  for  the  definite  and  appar- 
ently purposeful  character  of  certain  variations.  Since 
then  a  similar  feeling  has  been  voiced  by  Romanes  and 
others,  and  quite  lately  by  Scott,  but  the  most  extreme 
expression  of  it  has  recently  come  from  Dr.  Driesch  in 
the  implication  that  there  is  a  factor  not  unknown  but 
unknowable !  .  .  .  We  are  far  from  finally  testing  or  dis- 
missing these  old  factors,  but  the  reaction  from  specula- 
tion upon  them  is  itself  a  silent  admission  that  we  must 
reach  out  for  some  unknown  quantity.  If  such  does 
exist  there  is  little  hope  that  we  shall  discover  it  except 


THE  ELEMENTS  OF  ORGANIC  EVOLUTION. 


99 


by  the  most  laborious  research ;  and  while  we  may  pre- 
dict that  conclusive  evidence  of  its  existence  will  be 
found  in  morphology,  it  is  safe  to  add  that  the  fortunate 
discoverer  will  be  a  physiologist. 

"  Chief  among  the  unknown  factors  are  the  relations 
between  the  various  stages  of  development  and  the  en- 
vironment." 

Professor  Osborn  concludes  this  discussion  with  the 
belief  that  "  progressive  inheritance  is  rather  a  process 
of  substitution  of  certain  characters  and  potentialities 
than  the  actual  elimination  implied  by  Weismann.  "  My 
last  word  is,"  he  says,  "  that  we  are  entering  the  thresh- 
old of  the  evolution  problem  instead  of  standing  within 
the  portals.  The  harder  tasks  lie  before  us,  not  behind 
us,  and  their  solution  will  carry  us  well  into  the  twenti- 
eth century." 


IV. 

THE    FACTORS    OF    ORGANIC    EVOLUTION    FROM 
THE   STANDPOINT   OF   EMBRYOLOGY. 

BY  PROF.  EDWIN  GRANT  CONKLIN. 

OUR  knowledge  of  the  mechanics  of  evolution  must 
always  depend  in  large  part  upon  the  study  of  indi- 
vidual   development.      More   than    any 
Embryology          Qther    science    embryology    holds    the 
shows  the  meth-     ,  ,  7     .      ,.         .     .  Tr 

od  of  evolution.  ke?S  tO  the  method  °f  ™olutwn.  If  on- 
togeny  (life  history  of  the  individual)  is 
not  a  true  recapitulation  it  is  at  least  a  true  type  of  evo- 
lution, and  the  study  of  the  causes  of  development  will 
go  far  to  determine  the  factors  of  phylogeny  or  race 
development. 

The  causes  and  methods  of  evolution  are  intimately 
bound  up  with  those  general  phenomena  of  life,  such  as 
assimilation,  growth,  differentiation,  metabolism,  inher- 
itance, and  variation ;  and  the  evolution  problem  can 
never  be  solved  except  through  a  study  of  these  general 
phenomena  of  life  itself.  Our  great  need  at  present  is 
not  to  know  more  of  the  course  of  evolution,  but  to  dis- 
cover, if  possible,  the  causes  of  growth,  differentiation, 
repetition,  and  variation.  All  these  general  phenomena 
are  most  beautifully  illustrated  in  the  development  of 
individual  organisms,  and  because  they  are  fundamental 
to  any  theory  of  evolution  I  shall  dwell  upon  them 


THE   FACTORS   OF   ORGANIC   EVOLUTION.       IOI 

rather  than  upon  the  evidences  for  the  Lamarckian  or 
the  Darwinian  factors. 

I  call  attention  very  briefly  to  the  following  propo- 
sitions :  i.  Development,  and  consequently  evolution,  is 
the  result  of  the  interaction  of  extrin- 
Statementof  &[c    an(J    intrinsic    causes       2    Intrinsic 

propositions. 

causes  are  dependent  upon  protoplas- 
mic structure.  3.  Inherited  characters  must  be  prede- 
termined in  the  structure  of  the  germinal  protoplasm. 

4.  Germinal,  as  compared  with  somatic,*  protoplasm  is 
relatively  stable  and  continuous,  but  not  absolutely  so, 
as  maintained  by  Weismann ;  therefore,  extrinsic  causes 
may   modify   both   germinal   and   somatic   protoplasm. 

5.  It  is  extremely  difficult  to  determine  whether  or  not 
extrinsic   factors   have   modified   the   structure   of    the 
germinal  protoplasm.     This  is  illustrated  by  some   of 
the   evidences   advanced    for   the   inherited    effects    of 
diminished  nutrition,  changes  in  environment,  use  and 
disuse.      6.   Experiment  alone  can    furnish  the  crucial 
tests  of  these  Lamarckian  factors. 

i.  The  causes  of  development  in  general  are  usually 
recognised  as  twofold — extrinsic  and  intrinsic.     As  ex- 
amples of  extrinsic  causes  may  be  men- 
Causes  of  de-         tioned   gravity     surface    tension,    light, 
velopment.  ,  .  , 

heat,  moisture,  and  chemism  in  general ; 

examples  of  intrinsic  causes  are  the  non-exosmosis  of 
salts  from  living  bodies  in  water,  the  pouring  of  a  glan- 
dular secretion  or  the  sap  of  plants  into  a  cavity  under 
high  pressure,  the  active  changes  in  shape  and  position 
on  the  part  of  cells,  assimilation,  growth,  division,  etc. 
There  is  not,  however,  a  uniformly  sharp  and  distinct 
line  of  demarcation  between  these  two  factors  of  develop- 

*  Somatic  cells  are  those  composing  the  tissues  of  the  body 
as  distinguished  from  germ  cells — those  destined  to  form  the  new 
organism. 


IO2  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

ment.  Phenomena  once  supposed  to  be*due  entirely  to 
intrinsic  causes  are  now  known  to  be  the  result  of  ex- 
trinsic ones,  and  it  is  practically  certain  that  this  will  be 
found  true  of  still  other  phenomena.  But  although  it 
is  not  possible  to  draw  any  hard  and  fast  line  between 
these  two  classes  of  causes,  one  can,  in  general,  recog- 
nise a  very  marked  difference  between  them.  Extrinsic 
causes  may,  in  large  part,  supply  the  stimulus  and  the 
energy  for  development,  and  may  more  or  less  modify 
its  course ;  the  intrinsic  causes  are  of  a  much  more  com- 
plex character  than  the  extrinsic  ones,  they  are  inher- 
ent in  the  living  matter  and  in  large  part  predetermine 
the  course  of  development.  In  one  form  or  another  the 
distinction  between  these  two  classes  of  causes  is  recog- 
nised by  all  naturalists.  Professor  His  calls  the  intrinsic 
causes  "  the  law  of  growth,"  the  extrinsic  ones  the  con- 
ditions under  which  that  law  operates.  These  designa- 
tions correspond,  at  least  in  part,  to  Professor  Cope's 
anagenesis  and  katagenesis,  and  to  Roux's  "  simple  and 
complex  components  "  of  developmental  processes. 

While  it  is  necessary  to  emphasize  the  differences 
between  these  two  classes  of  causes,  it  is  not  intended 
thereby  to  dogmatically  assert  their  total  difference  in 
kind.  It  may  well  be  that  these  extrinsic  and  intrinsic 
causes  are  totally  different  in  kind,  but  in  our  present 
state  of  ignorance  it  would  be  unjustifiable  to  affirm  it. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  would  be  just  as  unwarrantable  to 
dogmatically  affirm  that  there  is  no  difference  in  kind 
between  these  two  classes  of  causes,  and  that,  therefore, 
all  vital  phenomena  are  only  the  manifestations  of  heat, 
light,  electricity,  attraction,  repulsion,  chemism,  and  the 
like.  It  may  be  that  this  is  true,  but  there  is  as  yet  no 
sufficient  evidence  for  it,  and  to  attempt,  as  certain 
dynamical  and  mechanical  hypotheses  do,  to  refer  all 
vital  phenomena  directly  to  such  simple  components  as 


THE   FACTORS   OF   ORGANIC   EVOLUTION. 


103 


those  named  above  is  practically  to  make  impossible  at 
present  any  explanation  of  vital  phenomena.  "  If  we 
would  advance  without  interruption,"  says  Roux,*  "  we 
must  be  content,  for  many  years  to  come,  with  an  analy- 
sis into  complex  components." 

2.  We  need  not  now  further  concern  ourselves  with 

an  explanation  of  extrinsic  causes  or  simple  components, 

since  this  subject  properly  belongs  to 

Intrinsic  causes      chemistry  and  physics.      If,  however,  we 

arise  from  nature  .  f 

,  examine  more  closely   some  of  the  in- 

of  protoplasm. 

trinsic  causes  or  complex  components,  we 
will  find  that  they  are  always  associated  with  more  or 
less  complex  structures ;  in  fact,  they  are  dependent  upon 
structure. 

The  smallest  and  simplest  mass  of  protoplasm  that 
can  manifest  all  the  fundamental  phenomena  of  life, 
such  as  assimilation,  growth,  division,  and  metabolism, 
is  an  entire  cell,  nucleus  and  cytoplasm,  and  probably 
centrosome.  The  cell  is  composed,  as  microscopic  study 
plainly  reveals,  of  many  dissimilar  but  perfectly  co- 
adapted  parts,  each  performing  its  specific  function,  and 
it  may  therefore  properly  be  called  an  organism.  Some 
phenomena  of  cell  life  may  be  directly  referred  to 
the  various  visible  constituents  of  the  cell,  but  many  of 
them  are  evidently  connected  with  structures  which  we 
can  not  see,  structures  which  may  perhaps  never  be 
seen,  and  yet  which  must  be  vastly  more  complex  than 
the  most  complex  molecules  known  to  chemistry,  and 
yet  much  more  simple  than  the  microsomes,  centro- 
somes,  and  chromosomes  which  are  visible  in  the  cell. 
With  these  ultra-microscopical  particles  many  of  the 
most  fundamental  phenomena  of  life  are  associated — 
viz.,  assimilation,  growth,  metabolism,  and  probably 

*  Wilhelm-Roux.  Einleitung  :  Archiv  fur  Entwickelungsmecha- 
nik  der  Organism. 


104  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

differentiation,  repetition,  and  variation.  These  func- 
tions are  so  co-ordinated  that  there  can  be  no  question 
that  the  ultra-microscopical  structure  is  an  organization, 
with  part  coadapted  to  part.  The  organization  of  the 
cell,  therefore,  does  not  stop  with  what  the  microscope 
reveals,  but  must  be  supposed  to  extend  to  the  small- 
est ultimate  particles  of  living  matter  which  manifest 
specific  functions.  These  are  the  vital  units  so  gener- 
ally postulated,  the  "  smallest  parts  "  of  living  matter, 
as  they  were  called  by  Briicke,  who  first  demonstrated 
that  they  must  exist ;  the  "  physiological  units "  of 
Spencer,  the  "  gemmules "  of  Darwin,  the  "  micella 
groups  "  of  Nageli,  the  "  pangenes  "  of  De  Vries,  the 
"  plasomes  "  of  Wiesner,  the  "  idioblasts  "  of  Hertwig, 
the  "  biophores  "  of  Weismann.  Such  ultimate  units 
have  been  found  absolutely  necessary  to  explain  those 
most  fundamental  of  all  vital  phenomena,  assimilation 
and  growth,  while  many  other  phenomena,  especially 
particulate  inheritance,  the  independent  variability  of  parts, 
and  the  hereditary  transmission  of  latent  and  patent  char- 
acters, can  at  present  only  be  explained  by  referring  them 
to  ultra-microscopical  units  of  structure.  To  deny  that 
there  are  such  units  does  not  simplify  the  problem,  as 
some  seem  to  suppose,  but  renders  it  impossible  of  ap- 
proach. A  corpuscular  hypothesis  of  life,  like  that  of 
light,  may  be  only  a  temporary  makeshift,  but  it  is 
better  than  nothing. 

Whitman  *  well  says  :  "  Brucke's  great  merit  consists 
in  this,  that  he  taught  us  the  necessity  of  assuming 
structure  as  the  basis  of  vital  phenomena,  in  spite  of 
the  negative  testimony  of  our  imperfect  microscopes. 
That  function  presupposes  structure  is  now  an  accepted 
axiom,  and  we  need  only  extend  Brucke's  method  of 

*  C.  O.  Whitman.  The  Inadequacy  of  the  Cell  Theory  of  De- 
velopment. Biological  Lectures,  1893. 


THE    FACTORS   OF   ORGANIC   EVOLUTION. 


105 


reasoning  from  the  tissue  cell  to  the  egg  cell  in  order 
to  see  that  there  is  no  escape  from  the  conclusion  that 
the  whole  course  of  developmental  phenomena  must  be 
referred  to  organization  of  some  sort.  Development, 
no  less  than  other  vital  phenomena,  is  a  function  of 
organization." 

3.  A  study  of  the  phenomena  of  development,  as 
well  as  the  principle  of  causality,  make  it  certain  that 
all  the  characters  of  the  species  are  pre- 
Inherited  charac-  determined  within  the  protoplasm  of  the 
ters  predeter-  fertilized  egg  cell.  From  a  frog's  egg 
mined  in  struc-  °  .  ,  ... 

ture  of  germ  cell.  onlv  a  fr°S  wl11  develop,  from  an  echmo- 
derm  egg  only  an  echinoderm,  and  the 
course  of  the  development  is,  under  normal  circum- 
stances, definitely  marked  out  in  each  case,  even  down  to 
the  minutest  details.  All  the  results  of  experiment,  as 
well  as  observation  and  induction,  only  serve  to  render 
this  conclusion  the  more  certain.  It  should  be  observed 
that  to  affirm  that  characters  are  predetermined  is  a 
very  different  thing  from  saying  they  are  preformed. 
The  one  merely  asserts  that  the  cause  of  the  transforma- 
tions which  lead  from  one  step  to  another  in  the  devel- 
opment is  determined  by  the  initial  conditions  of  the 
fertilized  egg  cell ;  the  other  affirms  that  those  trans- 
formations have  already  taken  place. 

The  absolute  determinism  of  development  depends 
primarily  upon  the  constant  structure  of  the  egg  cell, 
but  also  to  a  certain  extent  upon  a  definite  relation  to 
extrinsic  factors.  Since,  however,  these  extrinsic  fac- 
tors may  be  exactly  the  same  in  two  cases,  and  yet  the 
result  of  development  be  very  different  (e.  g.,  the  egg 
of  the  starfish  and  that  of  the  sea  urchin),  we  can  only 
conclude  that  while  ontogenetic  differences  may  be 
caused  by  a  disturbance  of  the  extrinsic  factors,  inherited 
characters  are  always  the  result  of  a  definite  structure  of 


I06  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

the  germinal  protoplasm,  and  that,  therefore,  develop- 
ment is,  in  the  words  of  Professor  Whitman,  "  a  function 
of  organization." 

Inheritance  and  variation  are  general  terms  which 
include  a  great  many  different  kinds  of  phenomena, 
many  of  which  seem  to  be  due  to  entirely  different  fac- 
tors. A  great  many  phenomena  of  inheritance  seem  to 
be  due  entirely  to  extrinsic  forces,  but  a  more  careful 
inquiry  always  reveals  the  fact  that  they  are  invariably 
due  to  the  reaction  of  certain  extrinsic  causes  on  a  per- 
fectly definite  living  structure.  As  examples  may  be 
mentioned  the  following: 

(a)  The  tiger-like  striping  of  the  egg  of  Fundulus, 
which  is  very  characteristic  and  would  certainly  be  re- 
garded as  an  inherited  character,  has  been  shown  by 
Loeb*  to  be  due  entirely  to  the  position  of  the  blood 
vessels  of  the  blastoderml  The  pigment  cells  are  at  first 
uniformly  distributed,  but  when  the  blood  vessels  are 
formed  they  gather  around  them,  probably  through 
chemotropic  action,  and  thus  the  characteristic  banded 
appearance  is  produced.  Graf  f  has  since  shown  that 
the  colour  patterns  of  leeches  are  produced  in  the  same 
way.  It  is  not  necessary,  therefore,  to  assume  that  the 
colour  patterns  in  these  cases  are  specifically  represented 
in  the  germinal  protoplasm;  it  may  even  be  that  the 
position  of  the  blood  vessels  is  not  so  represented,  but 
there  must  be  some  ultimate  cause  back  in  the  germinal 
plasm  itself  which  determines  the  series  of  causes  which 
finally  produces  the  colour  patterns.  In  short,  this  fea- 
ture, like  most  others,  was  predetermined  from  the  be- 
ginning. 

*  Jacques  Loeb.  Some  Facts  and  Principles  of  Physiological 
Morphology.  Biological  Lectures,  1893. 

f  Arnold  Graf.  Ueber  den  Ursprung  des  Pigments  und  der 
Zeichnung  bei  den  Hirudineen.  Zool.  Anzeiger,  No.  468,  1895. 


THE    FACTORS   OF   ORGANIC    EVOLUTION. 


107 


(<5)  Herbst  *  has  shown  in  a  series  of  interesting  ex- 
periments that  by  the  use  of  various  chemical  substances 
the  development  of  echinoderms  may  be  profoundly 
modified.  For  example,  in  sea  water  deficient  in  cal- 
cium chloride,  or  in  which  there  is  an  excess  of  potas- 
sium chloride,  the  Pluteus  larva,  instead  of  developing 
calcareous  spicules  and  the  long  ciliated  arms  which 
give  the  normal  larva  an  angular,  easel-shaped  appear- 
ance, remains  rounded  in  shape  much  like  the  larva  of 
Balanoglossus,  in  which  no  spicular  skeleton  is  developed. 
The  withdrawal,  therefore,  of  certain  normally  present 
substances  from  the  environment  may  profoundly  modi- 
fy the  final  result.  But  in  this  case,  as  in  the  other,  it  is 
absolutely  certain  that  the  calcareous  spicules  were  pre- 
determined in  the  egg  cell,  although  in  the  absence  of 
calcareous  matter  from  the  water  those  spicules  could 
not  be  built — the  plan  was  there,  but  the  building  ma- 
terial was  lacking. 

Such  modifications  resulting  from  unusual  conditions 
of  pressure,  temperature,  density,  nutrition — in  fact,  any 
alteration  of  the  chemical  or  physical  environment — may 
appear  in  any  stage  of  development  from  the  unseg- 
mented  egg  to  the  adult  condition,  but  it  must  not  be 
supposed  that  the  entire  development  can  be  reduced  to 
such  factors.  Loeb  argues  that  we  do  not  inherit  our 
body  heat  from  our  parents  because  it  depends  upon 
certain  chemical  processes ;  but  is  it  not  absolutely  cer- 
tain that  we  inherit  a  certain  protoplasmic  structure 
which  determines  those  chemical  processes,  and  hence 
the  body  temperature  ?  To  assume  that  extrinsic  causes 
determine  whether  there  shall  hatch  from  an  egg  a 
chicken  or  an  eagle  is  the  sheerest  nonsense.  The 
study  of  extrinsic  factors  in  relation  to  inheritance  will 

*  Zeit.  wiss.  Zool.,  Bd.  Iv. 


IOS  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

serve  to  simplify  some  of  the  intricate  problems  to  be 
explained,  but  surely  no  one  believes  that  development 
can  ever  be  referred  entirely  to  such  factors.  The  fact 
is  that  determinism,  which  is  the  most  fundamental 
characteristic  of  inheritance,  is  manifested  at  every  step 
of  development,  and  there  is  certainly  no  escape  from 
the  conclusion  that  this  determinism  depends  upon  pro- 
toplasmic structure,  and  that  this  structure  it  is  which  is 
transmitted  from  generation  to  generation,  and  which 
forms  the  physical  basis  of  inheritance. 

All  really  inherited  characters  must,  therefore,  be 
represented  in  the  structure  of  the  germinal  protoplasm, 
and  must  consequently  be  present  from  the  beginning  of 
development.  "  We  must  consider  it  as  a  law  derivable 
from  the  causality  principle,"  says  Hatschek,*  "that  in 
the  phylogenetic  alterations  of  an  animal  form  the  end 
stages  are  not  alone  altered,  but  the  entire  series  from 
the  egg  cell  to  the  end  stage.  Every  alteration  of  an 
end  stage  or  addition  of  a  new  one  must  be  caused  by 
an  alteration  of  the  egg  cell  itself."  Nageli  f  has  ex- 
pressed a  similar  view  in  the  following  famous  sentence : 
"  Egg  cells  must  contain  all  the  essential  characteristics 
of  the  species  as  perfectly  as  do  adult  organisms,  and 
hence  they  must  differ  from  one  another  no  less  as  egg 
cells  than  in  the  fully  developed  state.  The  species  is 
contained  in  the  egg  of  the  hen  as  completely  as  in  the 
hen,  and  the  hen's  egg  differs  as  much  from  the  frog's 
egg  as  the  hen  from  the  frog." 

4.  The  remarkable  tenacity  of  inheritance,  as  shown 
especially  in  reversions  and  the  preservation  of  useless 
and  embryonic  characters  through  many  hundreds  or 

*  Berthold  Hatschek.  Ueber  die  Entwickelungsgeschichte  von 
Toredo.  Arb.  Zool.  Inst.,  Wien,  1880. 

•f-  Nageli.  Mechanisch-physiologische  Theorie  der  Abstam- 
mungslehre,  1884. 


THE    FACTORS   OF   ORGANIC   EVOLUTION. 


I09 


thousands  of  generations,  and  amid  the  most  diverse 
circumstances,  bears  strong  testimony  to  the  great  sta- 
bility of  that  living  structure  which  is  the  basis  of  in- 
heritance. On  the  other  hand,  all  experience  goes  to 
prove  that  the  living  substance  of  the  body  cells  in  gen- 
eral is  readily  modified,  and  that  in  a  surprisingly  short 
time.  The  fact  of  this  great  difference  can  not  fail  to 
be  recognised ;  its  cause  is  at  present  merely  a  matter  of 
conjecture. 

Weismann  at  one  time  supposed  the  cause  of  this  to 
be  an  absolutely  stable,  absolutely  separate,  and  per- 
petually continuous  germ  plasm.  How- 
Germinal  proto-  ever,  there  is  the  most  convincing  and 
plasm  relatively  abundant  evidence  that  although  the 
but  not  abso-  .  .  ,  .  . 

lutely  stable.  Serm  PlaSm  1S  relatlvely  veiT  stable  and 

continuous,  it  does  not  possess  those 
divinely  perfect  characters  ascribed  to  it.  More  re- 
cently Weismann  has  practically  abandoned  each  and 
all  of  these  characters,*  and  now,  like  a  good  Lamarck- 
ian,  finds  "  the  cause  of  hereditary  variation  in  the 
direct  effects  of  external  influences  on  the  biophores 
and  determinants." 

The  outcome  of  the  whole  matter,  then,  is  that  we 
find  ourselves  much  in  the  same  position  as  we  were  be- 
fore Weismann  denied  the  possibility  of  the  inheritance 
of  acquired  characters.  All  hereditary  variations  are 
caused  by  the  action  of  extrinsic  forces  on  the  germinal  pro- 
toplasm, producing  changes  in  its  structure.  Strangely 
enough,  this  proposition  was  admitted  as  a  logical  neces- 
sity by  one  who  undertook  by  rigorous  logic  to  prove 
the  reverse.  Since  almost  the  only  objection  to  this 
position  was  the  one  raised  by  Weismann,  it  may  now 
be  considered  as  definitely  settled,  and  the  only  ques- 

*  See  Romanes's  Examination  of  Weismannism,  1893. 


HO  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

tion  before  us,  then,  is :  How  can  extrinsic  causes 
modify  the  structure  of  the  germinal  protoplasm  ? 

Since  by  his  own  admissions,  as  Romanes  has  shown, 
the  most  characteristic  features  of  Weismann's  system, 
both  as  to  inheritance  and  evolution,  have  been  virtually 
abandoned,  it  seems  to  some  that  his  theories  have  been 
of  no  real  value,  and  that,  like  an  ignis  fatuus,  they  have 
only  served  to  lead  biologists  astray  far  from  the  path 
of  science  into  the  dangerous  quagmires  of  speculation. 
I  do  not  share  any  such  opinion.  Apart  from  his  splen- 
did observations  and  the  great  stimulus  to  investigation 
which  Weismann's  theories  have  furnished,  there  remain 
many  elements  of  permanent  value  in  his  work. 

Osborn*  thinks  that  Weismann's  most  "permanent 
service  to  biology  is  his  demand  for  direct  evidence  of 
the  Lamarckian  principle."  It  seems  to  me  that  his 
greatest  service  consists  in  the  emphasis  which  he  has 
laid  upon  the  intrinsic  factors  of  development  and  evo- 
lution as  opposed  to  the  extrinsic  factors,  a  thing  which 
he  has  indeed  overemphasized  but  which  has  sadly 
needed  a  strong  defender  in  these  later  years.  Largely 
as  an  outcome  of  his  work  we  now  recognise  the  possi- 
bilities and  the  limitations  of  the  selection  theory  as 
never  before,  and  we  also  recognise  that  many  of  the 
evidences  which  were  adduced  in  support  of  the  La- 
marckian factors  are  not  conclusive,  while  the  method 
of  securing  conclusive  evidence  is  clearly  marked  out. 
Whatever  we  may  think  of  his  theories,  this  certainly  is 
no  slight  service. 

5.  It  is  by  no  means  an  easy  task  to  determine 
whether  the  influence  of  extrinsic  forces  has  really 
reached  the  germinal  protoplasm  and  modified  its  struc- 
ture ;  much  more  difficult  is  it  to  determine  how  that 

*  Osborn.  The  Unknown  Factors  of  Evolution.  Biological 
Lectures,  1894. 


THE   FACTORS   OF   ORGANIC   EVOLUTION.       Irl 

modification  takes  place.  I  believe  it  is  safe  to  say  that 
a  majority  of  the  cases  which  are  supposed  to  prove  the 
inheritance  of  acquired  characters  prove  only  that  char- 
acters are  acquired,  not  that  they  are 
Do  external  inherited.  There  is  great  need  of  cau- 

tion against  supposing  that  any  charac- 
germinal  7 

protoplasm?  ter  1S  mnented  unless  it  repeats  itself 
under  many  and  different  conditions. 
Apart  altogether  from  inheritance,  similar  conditions 
may  produce  similar  results,  and  consequently  this 
source  of  error  must  be  eliminated  if  we  would  be  cer- 
tain that  the  structure  of  the  germinal  protoplasm  has 
really  been  modified.  Many  of  the  alleged  cases  of  the 
inheritance  of  mutilations,  of  the  direct  influence  of  the 
environment,  and  of  use  and  disuse,  fall  away  under  this 
precaution. 

The  general  evidence  for  the  inheritance  of  mutila- 
tions is  so  notoriously  bad  that  I  pass  it  by  altogether 
and  select  for  consideration  a  few  cases,  chosen  from  a 
recent  work  on  the  subject,*  which  have  by  various 
writers  been  alleged  as  showing  the  direct  influence  of 
environment  in  modifying  species  and  also  the  inherited 
effects  of  use  and  disuse. 

(a)    It   is  well   known   that   certain    gasteropods   if 

reared  in  small  vessels  are  smaller  than  when  grown  in 

large  ones,  and  this  case  has  been  cited 

Diminished  ag  showing  the  influence  of  environment 

nutrition.  .  .  .  . 

in    modifying   species.      There   is   good 

evidence,  however,  that  this  modification  does  not  affect 
the  germinal  protoplasm,  for  these  same  gasteropods 
will  grow  larger  if  placed  in  larger  vessels.  It  seems 
very  probable  that  the  diminished  size  of  these  animals 
is  due  to  deficient  food  supply,  but  this  has  so  little 

*  E.  D.  Cope.  The  Primary  Factors  of  Organic  Evolution, 
1896. 

9 


H2  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

modified  the  somatic  protoplasm  that,  although  they 
may  be  fully  developed  as  shown  by  sexual  maturity, 
they  at  once  increase  in  size  as  soon  as  more  abundant 
food  is  provided,  and  this  takes  place  by  the  active 
growth  and  division  of  all  the  cells  of  the  body.  In 
higher  animals,  once  maturity  has  been  reached,  there  is 
little  chance  for  growth,  apparently  because  many  of 
the  cells  are  so  highly  differentiated  that  they  can  no 
longer  divide;  consequently  the  growth  is  limited,  and 
hence  the  size  of  the  adult  may  depend  in  part  upon  the 
amount  of  nutriment  furnished  to  the  embryo.  This 
limitation  of  growth  is  due  to  the  high  degree  of  dif- 
ferentiation of  the  somatic  cells.  But  as  the  germ 
cells  are  not  highly  differentiated  and  are  capable  of  di- 
vision, it  follows  that  they  would  not  be  permanently 
modified  by  starving.  It  may  be,  as  Professor  Brewer 
argues,  that  long-continued  starving  and  consequent 
dwarfing  of  animals  may  leave  its  mark  on  the  germinal 
plasm ;  but,  as  he  also  remarks,  this  influence  must  be 
very  slight  as  compared  with  the  cumulative  effects  of 
selection  in  breeding,  and  it  is  safe  to  assert  that  there 
is  no  such  wholesale  and  immediate  modification  of  the 
germinal  plasm  due  to  the  influence  of  nutrition  as  some 
people  seem  to  suppose. 

(b)  The  interesting  experiments  of  Schmankewitsch 

in  transforming  one  species  of  Artemia  into  another  by 

gradually  increasing  the  salinity  of  the 

water,  or  in  transforming  Artemia  into 
environment. 

another  genus,  Branchmecta,  by  decreas- 
ing the  salinity  of  the  water,  are  well  known  and  are 
often  cited  as  illustrations  of  the  fact  that  specific  and 
even  generic  differences  may  suddenly  be  produced 
under  the  influence  of  the  environment.  The  very  fact, 
however,  that  these  changes  are  suddenly  produced,  and 
that  they  can  at  will  be  quickly  modified  in  one  direction 


THE   FACTORS   OF   ORGANIC   EVOLUTION.       nj 

or  the  other,  is  evidence  that  they  are  not  represented  in 
the  structure  of  the  germinal  plasm ;  and  the  fact  that 
definite  extrinsic  causes,  such  as  salt  or  fresh  water,  act- 
ing upon  this  plasm,  produce  results  which  are  con- 
stantly the  same  is  the  best  evidence  that  the  internal 
mechanism — i.  e.,  the  structure  of  the  germinal  plasm — 
is  constantly  the  same.  The  same  can  be  said  of  many 
artificially  produced  modifications,  such  as  the  exogas- 
trulas  and  potassium  larvae  of  Herbst,  all  of  which  pro- 
found changes  are  due  entirely  to  extrinsic  and  not  to 
intrinsic  causes,  as  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  they  disap- 
pear as  soon  as  the  immediate  extrinsic  cause  is  with- 
drawn. The  same  thing  is  shown  in  Poulton's  experi- 
ments on  the  colours  of  lepidopterous  larvae,  and  in  this 
case  also  it  is  known  that  the  changes  are  not  inherited, 
at  least  during  the  limited  period  through  which  the 
experiments  were  conducted  ;  and  it  should  be  observed 
that  to  assume  that  this  would  take  place  at  the  end  of 
an  indefinite  number  of  generations  is  simply  to  beg  the 
question. 

Very  many  other  cases  of  a  similar  character  might 
be  instanced  under  this  head,  but  I  hasten  on  to  another 
class  of  evidence. 

(c)  Under  the  subject  of  the  inherited  effects  of  use 

and  disuse  the  following  cases  may  be 
Use  and  disuse.  ,  ....  .      . 

mentioned  as  showing  how  inconclusive 

much  of  the  evidence  is  : 

(x)  In  the  first  place,  this  whole  line  of  argument 
starts  with  the  assumption  that  the  individual  habits  of 
an  animal  are  inherited,  and  that  these  habits  ultimately 
determine  the  structure,  an  assumption  which  really 
begs  the  whole  question  ;  for,  after  all,  the  substratum 
of  any  habit  must  be  some  physical  structure,  and  if 
modified  habits  are  inherited  it  must  be  because  some 
modified  structure  is  inherited.  I  take  an  example 


H4  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

which  will  serve  as  an  illustration  of  a  whole  class : 
Jackson  *  says  that  the  elongated  siphon  of  Mya,  the 
long-necked  clam,  is  due  to  its  habit  of  burrowing  in 
the  mud,  or  to  quote  his  words :  "  It  seems  very  evi- 
dent that  the  long  siphon  of  this  genus  was  brought 
about  by  the  effort  to  reach  the  surface,  induced  by  the 
habit  of  deep  burial."  It  certainly  would  be  pertinent  to 
inquire  where  it  got  this  habit,  and  how  it  happened  to 
be  transmitted.  It  is  surely  as  difficult  to  explain  the 
acquisition  and  inheritance  of  habits,  the  basis  of  which 
we  do  not  know,  as  it  is  to  explain  the  acquisition  and 
inheritance  of  structures  which  are  tangible  and  visible. 
Such  a  method  of  procedure,  in  addition  to  begging  the 
whole  question,  commits  the  further  sin  of  reasoning 
from  the  relatively  unknown  to  the  relatively  known. 

This  case  is  but  a  fair  sample  of  a  whole  class, 
among  which  may  be  mentioned  the  following :  The 
derivation  of  the  long  hind  legs  of  jumping  animals,  the 
long  fore  legs  of  climbing  animals,  and  the  elongation  of 
all  the  legs  of  running  animals  through  the  influence  of 
an  inherited  habit.  All  such  cases  are  open  to  the  very 
serious  objection  mentioned  above. 

(y)  Another  whole  class  of  arguments  may  be  re- 
duced to  this  proposition  :  Because  necessary  mechan- 
ical  conditions   are  never   violated  by 
Mechanical  organisms,  therefore  modifications  due 

conditions.  .  .... 

to  such  conditions  show  the  inheritance 

of  acquired  characters.  Plainly,  the  alternative  propo- 
sition is  this:  If  acquired  characters  are  not  inherited, 
organisms  ought  to  do  impossible  things. 

(z)  Many  of  the  arguments  advanced  to  prove  the 
inheritance  of  characters  acquired  through  use  or  dis- 
use seem  to  me  to  prove  entirely  too  much.  For  ex- 

*  R.  T.  Jackson.     Memoirs  Boston  Soc.  Nat.  Hist.,  1890. 


THE-  FACTORS   OF   ORGANIC   EVOLUTION.       njj 

ample,  Professor  Cope  argues  very  ably  that  bones  are 
lengthened  by  both  stretch  and  impact,  and  that  modifi- 
cations thus  produced  are  inherited.  Even  granting 
that  this  is  true,  how  would  it  be  possible  for  this  pro- 
cess of  lengthening  to  cease,  since  in  active  animals  the 
stretch  and  impact  must  be  continual  ?  Professor  Cope 
answers  that  the  growth  ceases  when  "  equilibrium  "  is 
reached.  I  confess  I  can  not  understand  this  explana- 
tion, since  the  assumed  stimulus  to  growth  must  be  con- 
tinual. But,  granting  again  that  growth  may  stop  when 
an  animal's  legs  become  long  enough  to  "  satisfy  its 
needs,"  how  on  this  principle  are  we  to  account  for  the 
shortening  of  legs,  as,  for  example,  in  the  turnspit  dog 
and  the  ancon  sheep  and  numberless  cases  occurring  in 
Nature  ?  If  any  one  species  was  able,  by  taking  thought 
of  mechanical  stresses  and  strains,  to  add  one  cubit  unto 
its  stature,  how  could  the  same  stresses  and  strains  be 
invoked  to  decrease  its  stature  ? 

These  evidences  are,  I  know,  not  the  strongest  ones 
which  can  be  adduced  in  support  of  the  Lamarckian 
factors.  There  are  at  present  a  relatively  small  num- 
ber of  such  arguments  which  seem  to  be  valid  and  the 
great  force  of  which  I  fully  admit.  But  the  cases  which 
I  have  cited  are,  I  believe,  fair  samples  of  the  majority 
of  the  evidences  so  far  presented,  and  in  the  face  of 
such  "  evidence  "  it  is  not  surprising  that  one  who  is 
himself  a  profound  student  of  the  subject  and  a  con- 
vinced Lamarckian  prays  that  the  Lamarckian  theory 
may  be  delivered  from  its  friends.* 

6.  Another  line  of  evidence,  and  by  far  the  most 
promising,  is  that  of  direct  experiment.  So  far,  most 
of  the  experiments  which  have  been  carried  on  to  deter- 
mine this  question  have  been  carried  only  halfway  to  a 

*  H.  F.  Osborn.  Evolution  and  Heredity.  Biological  Lec- 
tures, 1890. 


Il6  FOOT-NOTES   TO  EVOLUTION. 

conclusion — they  have  shown   that  characters   are   ac- 
quired, they  have  usually  failed  to  show  that  they  are 
transmitted  to  descendants.     Among  animals  one  of  the 
best-known    cases  is  the  inheritance  of 

irect       epilepsy  and  other  disorders  in  guinea- 
experiment. 

pigs,  due  to  certain   nervous  lesions  of 

the  parents.  But  Romanes,*  who  spent  much  time  in 
trying  to  corroborate  these  results,  concludes  as  fol- 
lows: "On  the  whole,  then,  as  regards  Brown-Sequard's 
experiments,  it  will  be  seen  that  I  have  not  been  able  to 
furnish  any  approach  to  a  full  corroboration." 

Among  plants,  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  more  and 
better  experimental  evidence,  but  it  is  not  by  any  means 
as  full  or  satisfactory  as  could  be  wished.  Of  one  thing 
we  may  be  certain — a  satisfactory  solution  of  the  prob- 
lem can  be  reached  only  'by  experiment.  The  mere 
observations  and  inductions  of  the  morphologist,  while 
affording  valuable  collateral  evidence,  can  never  furnish 
the  crucial  test.  As  long  as  we  deal  merely  with  proba- 
bilities of  a  low  order  there  will  be  profound  differences 
of  opinion — e.  g.,  Cope  believes  in  all  the  Lamarckian 
factors  ;  Romanes  rejects  use  and  disuse,  but  believes  in 
the  others ;  Weismann  rejects  all  of  them.  Why  ?  Is 
it  because  each  does  not  know  the  facts  upon  which  the 
others  build  ?  Certainly  not.  Those  so-called  facts  are 
merely  probabilities  of  a  higher  or  lower  order,  and  to 
one  man  they  seem  more  important  than  to  another. 
No  conviction  based  even  upon  a  high  degree  of  proba- 
bility can  ever  be  reached  in  this  way.  There  is  here 
a  deadlock  of  opinion,  each  challenging  the  other  to 
produce  indubitable  proof.  This  can  never  be  furnished 
by  observation  alone.  Possibly  even  experiment  may 
fail  in  it,  but  at  least  it  is  the  only  hope. 


*  G.  J.  Romanes.     Post-Darwinian  Questions,  1895. 


THE   FACTORS   OF   ORGANIC   EVOLUTION.       117 

On  the  whole,  then,  I  believe  the  facts  which  are  at 

present  at  our  disposal  justify  a  return  to  the  position 

of  Darwin.     Neither  Weismannism  nor 

Return  to  the         Lamarckism  alone  can  explain  the  causes 

of  evolution.  But  Darwinism  can  ex- 
Darwin. 

plain  those  causes.    Darwin  endeavoured 

to  show  that  variations,  perhaps  even  adaptations,  were 
the  result  of  extrinsic  factors  acting  upon  the  organism, 
and  that  these  variations  or  adaptations  were  increased 
and  improved  by  natural  selection.  This  is,  I  believe, 
the  only  ground  which  is  at  present  tenable,  and  it  is 
but  another  testimony  to  the  greatness  of  that  man  of 
men  that,  after  exploring  for  a  score  of  years  all  the 
ins  and  outs  of  pure  selection  and  pure  adaptation,  men 
are  now  coming  back  to  the  position  outlined  and  un- 
swervingly maintained  by  him. 

Finally,  we  ought  not  to  suppose  that  we  have  al- 
ready reached  a  satisfactory  solution  of  the  evolution 

problem,  or  are,  indeed,  near  such  a 
The  final  word  solutioru  «  We  must  not  conceal  from 
still  far  distant.  ,  ..  ,,  „  ... 

ourselves  the  fact,     says   Roux,  "  that 

the  causal  investigation  of  organism  is  one  of  the  most 
difficult,  if  not  the  most  difficult,  problem  which  the 
human  intellect  has  attempted  to  solve,  and  that  this 
investigation,  like  every  causaFscience,  can  never  reach 
completeness,  since  every  new  cause  ascertained  only 
gives  rise  to  fresh  questions  concerning  the  cause  of 
this  cause." 


V. 

THE   HEREDITY   OF   RICHARD   ROE. 
"  Vom  Vater  hab'  ich  die  Statur."* — GOETHE. 

WHEN  Richard  Roe  was  born,  "the  gate  of  gifts  was 
closed"  to  him.     Henceforth  he  must  expect  nothing 

new  and  must  devote  himself  to  the 
Formation  of  ,  ,  ..  .  .  .  ,  ,  , 

character  development  of  the  heritage  he  had 

received  from  his  father  and  mother. 
He  must  bring  its  discordant  elements  into  some  sort  of 
harmony.  He  must  form  his  Ego  by  the  union  of  these 
elements.  He  must  soften  down  their  contradictions. 
He  must  train  his  elements  of  strength  to  be  helpful 
to  some  one  in  some  way,  that  others  may  be  helpful 

*  "  Stature  from  father  and  the  mood 
Stern  views  of  life  compelling  ; 
From  mother,  I  take  the  joyous  heart 
And  the  love  of  story-telling. 

"  Great-grandsire's  passion  was  the  fair, 

What  if  I  still  reveal  it? 

Great-granddam's,  pomp  and  gold  and  show, 
And  in  my  bones  I  feel  it. 

"  Of  all  the  various  elements 

That  make  up  this  complexity, 
What  is  there  left  when  all  is  done, 
To  call  originality?1' 

GOETHE  :  Zahme  Xcnien,   vi  ;  Bayard   Taylor's   translation  in 
part. 

118 


THE    HEREDITY   OF    RICHARD    ROE.  uy 

to  him.  He  must  give  his  weak  powers  exercise,  so 
that  their  weakness  shall  not  bring  him  disaster  in 
the  competition  of  life.  For  it  is  likely  that  some- 
where, somehow,  it  will  be  proved  that  no  chain  is 
stronger  than  its  weakest  link.  Other  powers  not  too 
weak,  nor  over  strong,  Richard  Roe  must  perforce 
neglect,  because  in  the  hurry  of  life  there  is  not  time 
for  every  desirable  thing.  In  these  ways  the  character 
of  Richard  Roe's  inheritance  is  steadily  changing  under 
his  hands.  As  he  grows  older,  one  after  another  of  the 
careers  that  might  have  been  his,  the  men  he  might 
have  been,  vanish  from  his  path  forever.  On  the  other 
hand,  by  steady  usage  a  slender  thread  of  capacity  has  so 
grown  as  to  become  like  strong  cordage.  Thus  Richard 
Roe  learns  anew  the  old  parable  of  the  talents.  The 
power  he  hid  in  a  napkin  is  taken  away  altogether,  while 
that  which  is  placed  at  usury  is  returned  a  hundredfold. 
Now,  for  the  purpose  of  this  discussion,  you,  gentle 
reader,  "who  are  an  achievement  of  importance,"  or  I, 
ungentle  writer,  concerning  whom  the  less  said  the  bet- 
ter, may  be  Richard  Roe.  So  might  any  of  your  friends 
or  acquaintances.  So  far  as  methods  and  principles  are 
concerned,  Richard  Roe  may  be  your  lapdog  or  your 
favourite  horse — or  even  your  bete  noire,  if  you  cherish 
beasts  of  that  character.  Any  beast  will  do.  With  Al- 
gernon Fitzclarence  de  Courcy  or  Clara  Vere  de  Vere  the 
case  would  be  just  the  same.  Let  Richard  Roe  stand  at 
present  for  the  lay  figure  of  heredity — or,  if  it  seems  best 
to  you  to  humanize  this  discussion,  let  him  be  a  man. 

The  man  Richard  Roe  enters  life  with  a  series  of 
qualities  and  tendencies  granted  him  by  heredity.     Let 

us  examine  this  series.  Let  us  ana- 
Hereditary  j  the  contents  of  this  pack  which 
tendencies.  J  .  ...  . 

he  is  to  carry  through  life  to  the  gates 

of  the  Golden  City. 


I2O  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

First,  from  his  parents,  Richard  Roe  has  inherited 
humanity,  the  parts  and  organs  and  feelings  of  a  man. 

"  Hath  he  not  eyes  ?  Hath  he  not  hands, 
Inheritance  of  organs  dimensions,  senses,  affections, 
humanity.  .  ..  ,  ... 

passions  ?  fed  with  the  same  food,  hurt 

with  the  same  weapons,  subject  to  the  same  diseases, 
healed  by  the  same  means,  warmed  and  cooled  by  the 
same  winter  and  summer  "  as  you  or  I  or  any  other 
king  or  beggar  we  know  of  ?  "  If  you  prick  us,  do  we 
not  bleed  ?  if  you  tickle  us,  do  we  not  laugh  ?  if  you 
poison  us,  do  we  not  die  ?  if  you  wrong  us,  shall  we  not 
revenge  ? "  All  this,  the  common  heritage  of  Jew  or 
Gentile,  goes  to  the  making  of  Richard  Roe.  His  an- 
cestors on  both  sides  have  been  human,  and  that  for 
many  and  many  generations,  so  that  "  the  knowledge  of 
man  runneth  not  to  the  contrary."  Even  the  prehuman 
ancestry,  dimly  seen  by  the  faith  of  science,  had  in  it 
the  potentialities  of  manhood.  Descended  for  countless 
ages  from  man  and  woman,  man  born  of  woman  Richard 
Roe  surely  is. 

We  may  go  farther  with  certainty.     Richard  Roe  will 
follow  the  race  type  of  his  parentage.     If  he  is  Anglo- 
Saxon,  as  his  name  seems  to  denote,  all 
Inheritance  of       Angio_Saxon  by  blood,  he  will  be  all 

race  characters. 

Anglo-Saxon  m  quality.  To  his  charac- 
ters of  common  humanity  we  may  add  those  common  to 
the  race.  He  will  not  be  negro  nor  Mongolian,  and  he 
will  have  at  least  some  traits  and  tendencies  not  found 
in  the  Latin  races  of  southern  Europe. 

But  his  friends  will  know  Richard  Roe  best  not  by 
the  great  mass  of  his  human  traits  nor  by  his  race 

characteristics.  These  may  be  predomi- 
Individual  nan(.  and  jneracjjcabie  but  they  are  not 

characters.  ....  TT  ,        ,  .       .  . 

distinctive.     He  must  be  known  by  his 

peculiarities,    by   his    specialties    and    his    deficiencies. 


THE    HEREDITY   OF   RICHARD   ROE.  121 

Within  the  narrowest  type  there  is  room  for  an  almost 
infinite  play  in  the  minor  variations.  For  almost  any 
possible  one  of  these,  Richard  Roe  could  find  warrant 
in  his  ancestry.  His  combination  of  them  must  be  his 
own.  That  is  his  individuality.  Colour  of  the  eyes  and 
hair,  length  of  nose,  hue  of  skin,  form  of  ears,  size  of 
hands,  character  of  thumb  prints,  in  all  these  and  ten 
thousand  other  particulars  some  allotment  must  fall  to 
Richard  Roe. 

He  must  have  some  combination  of  his  own,  for 
Nature  has  "broken  the  die  "  in  moulding  each  of  his 
ancestors,  and  will  tolerate  no  servile  copy  of  any  of 
her  works.  By  the  law  of  sex,  Richard  Roe  has  twice 
as  many  ancestors  as  his  father  or  mother  had.  There- 
fore these  could  give  him  anything  they  had  severally 
received  from  their  own  parents.  The  hereditary  gifts 
must  be  divided  in  some  way,  else  Richard  Roe  would 
be  speedily  overborne  by  them.  Furthermore,  any 
system  of  division  Nature  may  adopt  could  only  be  on 
the  average  an  equal  division.  Richard  Roe's  father 
might  supply  half  his  endowment  of  inborn  characters, 
his  mother  furnishing  the  other  half.  Nature  tries  to 
arrange  for  some  partition  like  this.  But  she  can  never 
divide  evenly,  and  some  qualities  will  not  bear  division. 
Richard  Roe's  share  forms  a  sort  of  mosaic,  made  partly 
of  unchanged  characters  standing  side  by  side  in  new 
combinations,  partly  a  mixture  of  characters,  and  part 
of  characters  in  perfect  blending. 

The  physical  reason  for  all  this  the  physiologists  are 
just  beginning  to  trace.  The  machinery  of  division  and 

integration  they  find  in   the  germ  cell 
The  germ  cell.         .       *  J 

itself — the   egg  and  its   male   cognate. 

At  the  same  time  they  find  that  Nature's  love  of  varia- 
tion is  operative  even  here.  She  has  never  yet  made 
two  eggs  or  two  sperm  cells  exactly  alike. 


122  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

The  germ  cell,  male  or  female — and  the  two  are  alike 
in  all  characters  essential  to  this  discussion — is  one  of 
the  vital  units  or  body  cells  set  apart  for  a  special  pur- 
pose. It  is  not  essentially  different  from  other  cells, 
either  in  structure  or  in  origin.  But  in  its  growth  it  is 
capable  of  repeating  the  whole  organism  from  which  it 
came,  "with  the  precision  of  a  work  of  art." 

The  germ  cell  is  made  up  of  protoplasm,  a  jelly-like 
substance,    less   simple   than    it   appears,    not   a  "  sub- 
stance "  at  all,  in  fact,  but  a  structure 
Protoplasm.  ,  .       ... 

as  complex  as  any  in  Nature.  In  con- 
nection with  this  structure  all  known  phenomena  of  life 
are  shown.  Inside  the  germ  cell,  or  in  any  other  cell,  is 
a  smaller  cellule  called  the  nucleus.  In  connection 
with  the  nucleus  appear  most  of  the  phenomena  of 
hereditary  transmission.  Its  structure  in  the  higher 
animals  is  a  complicated  arrangement  of  loops  and 
4>ands,  the  material  of  which  these  are  made  being 
called  chromatin.  This  name,  chromatin,  is  given  be- 
cause its  substance  takes  a  deeper 
Chromatin.  .  ,  ,  ,  _  .  .  , 

stain  or  colour  (chroma  in  Greek)  than 

ordinary  protoplasm  or  other  cell  materials.  In  the 
chromatin  are  the  determinants  of  heredity,  and  these 
preside  in  some  way  over  all  movements  and  all  changes 
of  the  protoplasm.  In  the  fertilized  egg,  the  mixed 
chromatin  *  of  the  two  cells  which  have  been  fused  into 
one  may  be  said  to  contain  the  architect's  plan  by  which 
the  coming  animal  is  to  be  built  up.  In  the  mixed 
chromatin  of  the  cell  which  is  to  grow  and  to  divide,  to 
separate  and  integrate,  till  it  forms  Richard  Roe,  the 
potentialities  of  Richard  Roe  all  lie  in  some  way  hidden. 
How  this  is  we  can  not  tell.  We  know  that  the  struc- 
ture of  a  single  cell  is  a  highly  complex  matter,  more 

*  For  a  discussion  of  this  and  other  views  more  or  less  hy- 
pothetical, see  the  essay  on  the  Physical  Basis  of  Heredity. 


THE    HEREDITY   OF   RICHARD    ROE. 


I23 


complex  than  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
with  a  far  more  perfect  system  of  checks  and  balances. 
When  we  can  understand  all  that  takes  place  in  a  single 
cell  we  shall  "  know  what  God  is  and  what  man  is."  It 
is  not,  like  the  Constitution  of  our  nation,  a  simple 
written  document  with  definite  powers  and  definite  limi- 
tations. It  may  rather  be  compared  to  the  unwritten 
constitution  of  civilization,  and  a  single  cell  may  hold 
in  potentiality  even  all  that  this  supposed  constitution 
may  embrace.  It  is  not  easy,  for  example,  to  understand 
how  Richard's  tone  of  voice,  or  the  colour  of  his  hair, 
or  his  ear  for  music,  or  other  hereditary  qualities  can 
be  thus  hidden.  But  so  they  seem  to  be,  and  if  Science 
should  stop  whenever  she  came  to  a  problem  we  cannot 
think  out,  the  growth  of  knowledge  would  be  hemmed 
in  more  closely  than  it  is  now. 

When  Nature  is  getting  the  germ  cells  ready,  the 
hereditary  material  or  chromatin  is  increased  in  each 
one  and  then  again  divided  and  subdivided,  till  in  the 
ripened  cell  but  half  the  usual  amount  is  present.*  The 
cell  is  then  ready  to  unite  with  its  fellow  to  form  a  per- 
fect cell,  from  which,  under  favourable  circumstances, 
the  great  alliance  of  cells  which  constitute  the  body  of 
Richard  Roe  can  be  built  up. 

Nature  makes  her  divisions  evenly  enough,  but  never 
quite  equally.  She  is  satisfied  with  an  approximate 
equality,  better  satisfied  than  if  she 

°f         COUM    make    a    Perfect    division-     She 
divisions  knows  no  straight  lines,  she  never  made 

a  perfect  sphere,  and  she  takes  the  cor- 
ner away  from  every  angle.  It  satisfies  her  desire  for 
likeness  to  have  her  children  almost  alike.  Exact  sym- 
metry would  exclude  variation,  for  which  she  cares 

*  This  explanation  is  probable  but  not  certain. 


I24 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


still  more  than  for  likeness,  and  for  good  reason.  If 
her  creatures  are  left  unlike,  it  is  so  much  the  easier  for 
her  to  find  places  for  them  in  the  crowded  world  of  life. 
Moreover,  unlikeness  gives  play  for  selection.  She  can 
save  her  favourites  and  discard  her  failures. 

So  in  the  chromatin  of  his  two  parents  Richard  Roe 
finds  his  potentialities,   his  capacities,   and  his  limita- 
tions.     But   latent   in    these   are   other 
Atavism.  .  .  ,       ,         ....          ,         ,     , 

capacities  and  other  limitations  handed 

down  from  other  generations  before  them.  Each  grand- 
father and  grandmother  has  some  claim  on  Richard 
Roe,  and  behind  these  dead  hands  from  older  graves 
are  still  beckoning  in  his  direction.  The  past  will  not 
let  go,  but  with  each  generation  the  dust  or  the  crust 
grows  deeper  over  it.  Moreover,  these  old  claims  grow 
less  and  less  with  time,  because  with  each  new  genera- 
tion there  are  twice  as  many  competitors.  Besides  this, 
as  we  shall  see  beyond,  these  past  generations  can  make 
no  claim  on  him  except  through  the  agency  of  his 
own  parents.* 

*  We  may  sum  up  Richard  Roe's  inheritance  by  making  use 
of  the  formulae  of  algebra,  a  science  which  deals  with  unknown 
characters  that  bear  definite  relations  to  each  other. 

Let  A  be  the  aggregate  of  species  and  race  characters  inherited 
from  the  father.  Let  A'  be  the  species  and  race  characters  inher- 
ited from  the  mother.  Then  —  — ,  as  A  =  A',  will  amount  to 

A  again.  A  forms  the  greater  part  of  Richard  Roe  in  numerical 
aggregate,  but  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  it  is  an  invariable  quan- 
tity, and  therefore  not  of  importance  in  making  up  the  character 
by  which  we  know-him  from  his  fellows. 

Let  B  be  the  recognisable  peculiarities  of  the  father,  and  B' 
the  recognisable  peculiarities  of  the  mother.  How  shall  these  be 

R     I      r>' 

divided?     Obviously  not  more  than should  be  expected, 

for  a  body  can  not  be  made  up  of  peculiarities.  We  may  infer 
from  Gallon's  studies  that  these  figures  are  in  excess  of  the 


THE    HEREDITY   OF    RICHARD   ROE. 


125 


Out  of  these  elements  Mr.  Galton  frames  the  idea  of  a 
"  mid-parent,"  a  sort  of  centre  of  gravity  of  heredity, 

which  in  language,  not  algebra,  would 
The  mid-parent.  ,  .  f 

represent  the  same  set  of  ideas.     But,  as 

Dr.  Brooks  has  observed,  "  It  may  be  well  to  ask  what 
evidence  there  is  that  the  child  does  inherit  from  any 
ancestor  except  its  parents,  for  descent  from  a  long  line 
of  ancestors  is  not  necessarily  equivalent  to  inheritance 
from  them,  and  it  is  quite  possible  that  the  conception 
of  a  'mid-parent*  may  be  nothing  but  a  logical  abstrac- 
tion." *  The  parents  of  Richard  Roe  were  his  father  and 

fact.  In  each  process  of  generation,  half  these  qualities,  al- 
ready once  divided,  are  lost  or  rendered  unrecognisable  by  indi- 
vidual variations  or  by  contradictory  blendings.  To  each  parent 
Galton  assigns  about  twenty-five  per  cent  of  these  personal 

TT>  -r>/ 

qualities.     Accepting  this  as  approximate,  —  +  — would  be  nearer 

the  actual  fact,  and  we  may  so  take  it.  But  the  latent  influence 
of  the  grandparents  must  come  in,  these  represented  by  C,  C',  C", 
and  C'"  respectively.  In  this  case  the  divisor  may  apparently 
be  16,  which  corresponds  to  Gallon's  estimate  of  6§  per  cent. 
Should  we  wish  to  go  farther  back,  the  influence  of  the  great- 
grandparents,  D,  D'  D",  etc.,  eight  of  them,  could  be  added,  each 
with  64  as  its  divisor. 

It  is  evident  that  these  divisors  are  all  proximate  only,  and 
varying  at  each  cleavage  of  the  germinal  chromatin.  The  un- 
known and  fluctuating  element  in  this  division  we  may  designate 

as  ±  «.     Hence would  represent  the  direct  heritage  of  his 

4  ±  n 

father  to  Richard  Roe.     Then  A  4-  — ; —  +  — , —  +  -7 °+  -7 s 

4  ±  n     4  ±  n     16  ±  «s     16  ±  ns 

C"  C'"        SDetc.     i6Eetc. 

7n?  +  rf^?+6^i  +^6T^' 
draft  of  the  hereditary  framework  of  Richard  Roe. 

*  In  that  case  the  formula  given  in  the  above  note  would  be 
modified  to  this  extent.  The  value  of  C,  D,  E,  etc.,  would  be 
limited  to  the  hereditary  characters  latent  but  undeveloped  in  B, 
etc.  Their  value  would  be  less  than  B,  for  some  part  of  B  would 


126  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

mother,  not  his  grandfather  or  grandmother,  nor  yet 
the  whole  human  race,  in  one  of  the  chains  of  which  he 
forms  a  single  link.  When  a  son  inherits  his  maternal 
grandfather's  beard  it  is  really  his  mother's  beard  which 
he  acquires.  It  is  the  beard  which  his  mother  would 
have  had  had  she  been  a  man. 

Dr.  Brooks  says :  "  When  the  son  of  a  beardless  boy 
grows  up  and  acquires  a  beard,  we  may  be  permitted  to 
say  that  he  has  inherited  his  grandfather's  beard  ;  but 
this  is  only  a  figure  of  speech,  and  he  actually  inherits 
the  beard  his  father  might  have  acquired  had  he  lived  ; 
nor  would  the  case  of  a  child  descended  from  a  series  of 
ten  or  a  hundred  beardless  boys  be  any  different."  * 

The  species  and  race  characters  being  the  same  for 
father  and  mother,  must  be  the  same  for  the  son.  They 


have  to  be  subtracted  from  each  of  them.  For  it  is  evident  that 
the  inheritance  from  the  grandparents  and  from  far-off  ancestors 
came  through  the  parents.  If  not  active  in  them,  these  qualities 
must  have  been  latent,  and  in  either  case  they  came  from  them 
to  Richard  Roe.  In  strictness  the  inheritance  of  C,  D,  E,  etc., 
is  included  in  B,  as  are  also  the  race  qualities  and  the  qualities 
of  the  species. 

*  Setting  aside  these  considerations,  it  is  evident  that,  as  A  +  B, 
A  +  B',  A  +  C,  A  4-  D",  etc.,  represent  each  a  distinct  personality, 
Richard  Roe  from  the  first  will  differ  notably  from  A  +  B,  as- 
sumed as  the  original  formula  of  his  father.  To  what  extent 
this  difference  goes  depends  on  the  value  of  A  as  compared  with 
B,  B',  etc.  ;  in  other  words,  on  the  uniformity  of  the  pedigree. 
If  B,  C,  D  and  the  rest  were  very  closely  alike,  as  is  the  case 
with  "  thoroughbreds,"  the  differential  elements  will  be  small, 
and  the  complete  Richard  Roe  will  be  very  like  the  rest  of  them. 
If  B,  C,  D  are  small  quantities,  and  A  +  B  essentially  similar  to 

A  +  D,  the  addition  of  -7— —  will  count  for  but  little  in  the  ag- 
io ±  n 

gregate.  To  be  thoroughbred  is  to  be  bred  so  as  to  exclude  indi- 
vidual variation.  It  tends  to  prevent  failures  or  deficiencies,  and 
at  the  same  time  it  tends  to  limit  advance. 


THE    HEREDITY   OF   RICHARD   ROE.  127 

are  added  together  and  divided  by  two.  Half  comes 
from  each  side  in  the  process  of  inheritance,  but  the 
two  halves  are  alike.  But  the  personal  peculiarities 
recognisable  in  the  father  are  different  from  those  seen 
in  the  mother.  The  son  can  not  inherit  all  from  both 
sources.  Certainly  not  more  than  half  could  come  from 
either  source,  for  the  new  generation  could  not  be  built 
of  peculiarities  alone.  The  old  large,  common  heritage 
must  always  have  precedence.  Galton  has  made  a  cal- 
culation (referred  to  in  the  note  above),  based  on  wide 
observations,  that  on  the  average  25  per  cent  of  the 
individual  peculiarities  are  directly  inherited  from  each 
parent.  On  the  average,  each  parent  exerts  the  same 
force  of  heredity.  Half  the  characters  come  from  each, 
but  in  each  half  it  would  appear  that  about  one  half  is 
lost  or  rendered  unrecognisable  by  other  variation  or  by 
contradictory  blendings.  The  first  division  of  qualities  in 
half  is  necessary  and  natural,  for  there  are  two  parents. 
The  second  division  in  half  is  an  arbitrary  assumption 
which  seems  to  find  its  warrant  in  Gallon's  studies.  We 
might  assume  without  theoretical  difficulty  a  third  or  a 
fifth  as  being  preserved  intact  among  possible  variations 
and  combinations.  One  half,  however,  seems  nearer  the 
fact,  and  to  find  the  fact  is  the  only  purpose  of  theory. 
To  the  characters  received  from  the  parents  we  must 
add  the  latent  influence  of  grandparents,  great-grand- 
parents, and  the  long  array  of  dead  hands  which,  how- 
ever impotent,  can  never  wholly  let  go.  As  the  small- 
est wave  must  go  on,  in  theory  at  least,  till  it  crosses 
the.  ocean,  so  the  influence  of  every  ancestor  must  go  on 
to  the  end  of  the  generation.  Each  of  us  must  feel  in  a 
degree  the  strength  or  weakness  of  each  one  of  them. 
To  each  grandparent  Galton  assigns  6f  per  cent.  There 
are  four  grandparents  and  two  stages  of  generation  sepa- 
rate them  from  Richard  Roe.  Half  the  force  of  each, 

10 


128  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

twice  lost,  seems  to  give  to  each  grandparent  one  fourth 
the  potency  in  heredity  the  father  or  mother  has.  In 
the  same  way  to  the  great  grandparent  we  must  assign 
the  relation  of  i^  per  cent  (one  sixty-fourth),  and 
so  on. 

The  "bluer"  the  blood — that  is,  the  more  closely 
alike  these  ancestors  are — the  greater  will  be  the  com- 
mon factor,  the  less  the  amount  derived 

fr°m  thC  individual"  In  Perfect  thor' 
oughbreedings  the  individual  should 
have  no  peculiarities  at  all.  This  condition  is  never 
reached,  but  it  may  sometimes  be  approximated.  In  such 
case  the  addition  of  an  ancestral  sixteenth  or  sixty  fourth 
could  make  no  visible  change.  This  may  be  true  among 
the  very  bad  as  well  as  among  the  very  good.  Weak- 
ness or  badness  are  more  often  thoroughbred  than 
strength  or  virtue.  The  bluest  of  blood  may  run  in  the 
veins  of  the  pauper  as  well  as  in  the  aristocrat  who 

W 

boasts  that  -—^ in    his   formula  stands   for 

2 147473648;*  ± 

William  the  Norman.  And  for  Richard  Roe's  own  sake 
let  us  hope  that  he  is  not  too  thoroughbred,  and  that  he 
has  no  record  of  W  and  W'",  nor  even  of  E.  Too  nar- 
row a  line  of  descent  tends  to  intensify  weaknesses. 
Vigour  and  originality  come  from  the  mingling  of  vari- 
ant elements.  Nature  does  not  favour  "  in-and-in  breed- 
ing." There  is  no  loss  to  the  individual  if  decided  and 
different  qualities  come  from  father  or  mother.  Con- 
tradictory or  even  incongruous  peculiarities  are  better 
than  none  at  all. 

Ancestry,  too,  like  wine,  becomes  stale  if  it  remains 
too  long  in  the  sunshine.  An  ancestry  which  is  readily 
traced  has  lived  too  long  in  easy  places.  A  few  genera- 
tions of  successful  dealing  with  small  matters  may  pre- 
pare the  way  for  the  power  to  deal  with  great  ones. 


THE    HEREDITY   OF   RICHARD   ROE. 


I29 


Wisdom  is  knowing  what  to  do  next,  and  wisdom  may 
exist  in  humble  as  well  as  conspicuous  fields  of  action. 

Again,  at  the  time  of  Richard  Roe's  birth,  the  for- 
mula of  his  father  was  slowly  changed,  under  the  re- 
action  toward  activity   or   to   idleness, 
Changes  through    resulti         from    hig   efforts   and    hig    en_ 
experience.  .  ,    . 

vironment.      If    it   was    originally    and 

potentially  A  -{-  B,  and  that  of  his  father  A'-f-  B,  it  is 
now  no  longer  so.  Changes  constantly  arise  from  the 
experiences  of  life,  the  stress  of  environment,  the  re- 
duction of  "mental  friction,"  the  formation  of  auto- 
matic nervous  connections  or  habits,  the  growth  through 
voluntary  effort,  the  depression  from  involuntary  work 
or  idleness,  the  degeneration  through  the  vitiation  of 
nerve  honesty  caused  by  stimulants  or  vice,  the  deteri- 
oration due  to  spurious  pleasures  that  burn  and  burn 
out. 

Each  of  these  may  have  come  to  the  father  of  Rich- 
ard Roe,  and  each  one  had  left  its  mark  on  him.  The 
fairy's  wand  and  the  fool-killer's  club  each  leaves  an 
indelible  trace  whenever  it  is  used.  Through  these  in- 
fluences* every  man  is  changed  from  what  he  was  or 
what  he  might  have  been  to  what  he  is. 

*  Let  X  be  the  aggregate  of  gains  and  Y  of  losses  due  to  these 
acquired  qualities.  In  the  case  of  the  mother  these  may  be  X' 
and  Y'.  In  this  case  X  and  Y,  X'  and  Y',  represent  large  fac- 
tors, but  excessively  diverse  and  varying,  affecting  in  some  de- 
gree all  the  qualities  contained  in  the  symbols  B  and  B'.  Richard 
Roe's  father  would  then  be  A  +  B  +  X  —  Y.  His  mother  A  +  B'  + 
X'— Y'.  These  added  numbers  mark  the  change  from  what  these 
two  ought  to  have  been  or  would  naturally  have  been  toward 
what  they  are.  How  much  of  this  is  inherited  ?  How  do  these 
characters  affect  Richard  Roe  ?  How  much  of  X  and  Y  shall  we 
place  in  his  formula?  Some  learned  investigators,  notably 
August  Weismann  and  Alfred  Russell  Wallace,  say  that  these 
changes  count  for  nothing  in  heredity.  X  and  Y  spend  their 


130 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


Lamarck's  much-discussed  "  fourth  law  "  of  develop- 
ment reads  as  follows :  "  All  that  has  been  acquired, 

begun,  or  changed  in  the  structure  of  the 
Inheritance  of  individuals  in  their  lifetime  is  preserved 
acquired  charac-  .  ,  ,  ,  , 

in  reproduction  and  transmitted  to  the 
ters. 

new  individuals  which  spring  from  those 

who  have  inherited  the  change." 

"Change  of  function  produces  change  of  structure," 
so  Herbert  Spencer  tells  us;  "it  is  a  tenable  hypothesis 
that  changes  of  structure  thus  produced  are  inheritable." 

But  though  this  may  be  a  tenable  hypothesis,  the 
opposite  hypothesis  has  not  been  clearly  shown  to  be 
intenable.  It  seems  to  be  true  that  any  great  physical 
weakness  on  the  part  of  Richard  Roe's  parents  would 
tend  to  lower  his  constitutional  vigour,  whatever  the 
origin  of  such  weakness  might  be.  If  so,  such  weakness 
might  appear  as  a  large  deficiency  in  his  power  of  using 
his  equipment.  It  may  be,  too,  that  any  extreme  degree 
of  training,  as  in  music  or  mathematics,  might  determine 
in  the  offspring  the  line  of  least  resistance  for  the  move- 
ment of  his  faculties.  Perhaps  Richard  Roe  would  find 


force  on  the  generation  that  develops  them.  Acquired  characters 
are  never  inherited.  Other  investigators,  equally  wise,  Herbert 
Spencer  and  Lester  F.  Ward,  for  example,  do  not  admit  that  any 
gain  or  loss  to  the  individual  is  without  its  effect  on  succeeding 
generations,  and  thus  on  the  species.  X  and  Y  are  inherited  just 
as  B  or  B'  may  be. 

Let  us  assume  that  they  are  inherited  in  some  degree,  and  let  us 

X  _i_  x' Y Y' 

represent  this  inheritance  of  acquired  characters  as  —  '• — 

The  divisor  Q  reducing  all  acquired  characters  of  the  parent  is  an 
unknown  quantity  of  large  and  perhaps  variable  value.  If  large, 
the  value  of  the  fraction  will  be  correspondingly  small.  In  Weis- 

X        V 
mann's  view,  Q  should  equal  infinity,  in  which  case  Q  or  Q  would 

be  nothing  at  all.     This  would  be  the  symbol  of  non-inheritance. 


THE    HEREDITY   OF   RICHARD   ROE.  131 

mathematics  easier  had  his  father  devoted  his  life  to 
exercise  of  that  kind.  But  we  are  not  sure  that  this  is 
so.  WTe  do  not  know  yet  on  what  terms  X  and  Y  and 
X'  and  Y'  are  passed  over  to  Richard  Roe,  or  whether 
they  are  passed  on  to  him  at  all.  In  the  view  of  Her- 
bert Spencer  ("  Neo-Lamarckism  ")  X  and  Y  are  inher- 
ited, just  as  A  and  B  are.  According  to  Weismann  and 
his  followers  they  are  not  subjects  of  heredity  at  all. 

I  can  not  pretend  to  say  what  will  be  the  final  de- 
cision of  science  in  regard  to  this  vexed  question.  I 
venture,  to  suggest  that  in  Lamarck's  law  and  in  the 
theories  of  many  of  his  modern  followers,  too  high  value 

X          Y 

has  been  set,  not  on  X  and  Y,  but  on  —  and  — .     On  the 

other  hand,  if  these  fractions  are  really  equal  to  zero,  if 
acquired  characters  are  absolutely  of  no  value  in  hered- 
ity, some  problems  in  biology  we  have  thought  easy 
become  tremendously  complicated.  We  must  rewrite  a 
large  portion  of  the  literature  of  sociology.  We  must 
give  a  new  diagnosis  to  Ibsen's  Ghosts.  We  must,  in 
fact,  do  this  in  any  event,  for  inheritance  such  as  the 
Norwegian  dramatist  pictures  it,  belongs  not  to  heredity 
at  all,  but  is  to  be  sought  for  among  the  phenomena  of 
transmission  and  nutrition.  They  are  matters  of  vege- 
tative development  rather  than  of  true  heredity.  Of 
the  same  nature  is  probably  the  recurrence  of  "  spent 
passions  and  vanished  sins  "  that  certain  psychologists 
ascribe  to  heredity. 

We  may,  I  think,  set  aside  the  inheritance  of  ac- 
quired characters  as   not  being   a  large  factor  in  the 
changes  of.  the  higher  animals.     Prop- 
a  u.re  c  erly  speaking,  as  Mr.  Archdall  Reid  has 

characters  we^  snown>  nearly  all  the  characters  of 

the  adult  are  "acquired  characters"  as 
distinguished  from  innate  characters.     Heredity,  for  ex- 


132 


FOOT-NOTES   TO  EVOLUTION. 


ample,  does  not  give  to  the  grown  man  his  characteris- 
tics. It  gives  only  the  power  to  acquire  them.  Just  as 
excessive  muscular  development  requires  excessive  use 
of  the  arm,  so  average  development  of  any  organ  is  con- 
ditioned on  an  average  degree  of  normal  activity. 

"Therefore,"  says  Mr.  Reid,  "/'/  t's  clear  that  the  full 
development  of  the  normal  adult  arm  as  well  as  many  other 
important  structures  is  acquired^  differing  in  this  from 
eyes,  ears,  teeth,  nails,  etc.,  which  are  wholly  inborn 
and  do  not  owe  their  development  in  the  least  to  use 
and  exercise.  It  will  be  found  that  adult  man  differs 
physically  from  the  infant  almost  wholly  in  characters 
which  are  acquired,  not  in  those  which  are  inborn.  In 
teeth,  hair,  skull  bones,  and  some  other  respects  he  dif- 
fers from  the  infant  as  regards  inborn  characters,  but  as 
regards  almost  all  of  the  structures  of  the  trunk  and 
limbs  and  most  of  those  of  the  head,  the  difference  is  in 
characters  which  have  been  acquired  by  the  adult  as  a 
response  to  the  stimulation  of  exercise  and  use.  .  .  . 
But  variations  acquired  as  a  result  of  use  and  disuse  are 
plainly  never  transmitted.  Thus  an  infant's  limb  never 
attains  the  adult  standard  except  in  response  to  the 
same  stimulation  (exercise)  as  that  which  developed  the 
parent's  limb.  The  same  is  true  of  all  the  other  struc- 
tures which  in  the  parent  underwent  development  as  a 
result  of  use  or  subsequent  retrogression  in  the  absence 
of  it.  These,  like  the  limbs,  do  not  develop  or  retro- 
gress in  the  infant  except  as  a  result  of  similar  causes. 
Plainly,  then,  what  is  transmitted  to  the  infant  is  not  the 
modification,  but  only  the  power  of  acquiring  it  under  simi- 
lar circumstances •,  a  power  which  has  undergone  such  an 
evolution  in  high  animal  organisms  that,  as  I  say  in  man, 
for  instance,  almost  all  the  development  changes  which 
occur  between  infancy  and  manhood  are  attributable  to  it. 

"  The  power  of  acquiring  fit  modifications  in  response 


THE    HEREDITY   OF   RICHARD   ROE. 


133 


to  appropriate  stimulation  is  that  which  especially  dif- 
ferentiates high  animal  organisms  from  low  animal  or- 
ganisms. 

"Without  this  power  and  the  plasticity  which  results 
from  it  the  multitudinous  parts  of  high  animals  could 
not  well  be  co-ordinate,  and  therefore  without  it  their 
evolution  could  scarcely  have  been  possible.  Indeed,  it 
is  not  too  much  to  say,  so  vitally  important  is  this 
power  to  the  higher  animals,  that  as  regards  them  the 
chief  aim  (if  I  may  use  the  expression)  of  natural  se- 
lection has  been  to  evolve  it."* 

One  more  element,  likewise  of  doubtful  value,  must 

be  added  to  the  inventory  of  Richard 
Prenatal  Rog  Thig  .g  the  element  of  prenatal 

influences.  . 

influence  on  the  part  of  his  mother. 

In  the  process  of  evolution  the  development  of  the 
female  has  brought  her  to  be  more  and  more  the  pro- 
tector and  helper  of  the  young.  She  gives  to  her  prog- 
eny not  only  her  share  of  its  heredity,  but  she  becomes 
more  and  more  a  factor  in  its  development. 

In  the  mammalia  the  little  egg  is  retained  long  in 
the  body  and  fed,  not  with  food  yolk,  but  with  the 
mother's  blood.  The  "gate  of  gifts"  is  not  closed  with 
the  process  of  fertilization  as  it  is  in  the  lower  forms. 
If  the  help  of  favourable  environment  can  be  counted 
as  a  gift,  this  gate  is  not  closed  at  birth  nor  so  long  as 
the  influence  of  the  mother  remains.  By  the  growth  of 
the  human  family  the  parental  environment  becomes  a 
lifelong  influence.  The  father  as  well  as  the  mother 
becomes  a  part  of  it.  In  Walt  Whitman's  words  : 

"  His  own  parents  (he  that  had  fathered  him  and  she  that  had 

conceived  him  in  her  womb  and  birth'd  him), 
They  gave  this  child  more  of  themselves  than  that, 
They  gave  afterward  every  day,  they  became  part  of  him." 

*Archdall  Reid,  Science,  December  17,  1897,  p.  901. 


134 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


It  has  long  been  a  matter  of  common  belief  that 
among  mammals  a  special  formative  influence  is  exerted 
by  the  mother  in  the  period  between  conception  and 
birth.  The  patriarch  Jacob  is  reputed  to  have  made  a 
thrifty  use  of  this  influence  in  relation  to  the  herds  of 
his  father-in-law  Laban.  This  belief  is  part  of  the  folk- 
lore of  almost  every  race  of  intelligent  men.  In  the 
translations  of  Carmen  Silva,  that  gentle  woman  whom 
kind  Nature  made  a  poet  and  cruel  fortune  a  queen,  we 
find  these  words  of  a  Roumanian  peasant  woman  : 

"  My  little  child  is  lying  in  the  grass, 
His  face  is  covered  with  the  blades  of  grass. 
While  I  did  bear  the  child,  I  ever  watched 
The  reaper  work,  that  it  might  love  the  harvests  ; 
And  when  the  boy  was  born,  the  meadow  said, 
'  This  is  my  child.'" 

In  the  current  literature  of  hysterical  ethics  we  find 
all  sorts  of  exhortations  to  mothers  to  do  this  and  not 
to  do  that,  to  cherish  this  and  avoid  that  on  account  of 
its  supposed  effect  on  the  coming  progeny.  Long  lists 
of  cases  have  been  reported  illustrating  the  law  of  pre- 
natal influences.  Most  of  these  records  serve  only  to 
induce  scepticism.  Many  of  these  are  mere  coinci- 
dences, some  are  unverifiable,  some  grossly  impossible, 
and  some  read  like  the  certificates  of  patent  medicines. 
There  is  an  evident  desire  to  make  a  case  rather  than 
to  tell  the  truth.  The  whole  matter  is  much  in  need  of 
serious  study,  and  the  entire  record  of  alleged  facts 
must  be  set  aside  to  make  an  honest  beginning. 

Dr.  Weismann  ridicules  it  all  and  believes  that  all 
forms  of  mother's  marks,  prenatal  influences,  and  the 
like,  are  relics  of  mediaeval  superstition.  Other  authori- 
ties of  equal  rank,  as  Henry  Fairfield  Osborn,  believe 
that  these  supposed  influences  exist  and  are  occasional- 
ly made  evident.  Doubtless  most  of  the  current  stories 


THE   HEREDITY   OF   RICHARD   ROE. 


135 


are  products  of  self-deception  or  plain  lying.*  Probably 
the  period  of  gestation  is  too  short  for  peculiar  nervous 
states  to  produce  far-reaching  changes  in  hereditary  en- 
dowments. On  the  other  hand,  doubt  and  ridicule  are 
not  argument,  and  there  may  be  some  reality  in  influ- 
ences in  which  the  world  has  so  long  believed  ;  but  these 
phenomena,  if  existing,  belong  to  the  realm  of  abnormal 
nerve  action  or  of  altered  nutrition,  not  to  heredity. 

The  value  of  the  prenatal  influences  acting  upon 
Richard  Roe  we  may  indicate  as  Z,  giving  the  symbol 
an  indefinite  and,  if  you  please,  a  low  value.  But  this 
is  not  the  whole  story.  There  are  many  phenomena  of 
transmitted  qualities  that  can  not  be  charged  to  hered- 
ity. Just  as  a  sound  mind  demands  a 
Transmission  SQUnd  bod  SQ  doeg  ft  s()und  chnd  de_ 
of  impaired 
vitality  mand  a  sound  mother.  Bad  nutrition 

before  as  well  as  after  birth  may  neu- 
tralize the  most  vigorous  inheritance  within  the  germ 
cell.  A  child  well  conceived  may  yet  be  stunted  in  de- 
velopment. Even  the  father  may  transmit  weakness 
in  development  as  a  handicap  to  hereditary  strength. 
The  many  physical  vicissitudes  between  conception  and 
birth  may  determine  the  rate  of  early  growth  or  the  im- 
petus of  early  development.  In  a  sense,  the  impulse  of 

*  For  example,  Dr.  Fearn  cites  the  following  case  :  "A  mother 
witnessed  the  removal  of  one  of  the  bones  (metacarpal)  from  her 
husband's  hand  which  greatly  shocked  and  alarmed  her.  A  short 
time  after  she  had  a  child  who  was  born  without  the  correspond- 
ing bone  which  was  removed  from  the  father."  (Report  of  Med- 
ical Association  of  Alabama,  1850,  as  quoted  by  Dr.  S.  B.  Elliott 
in  the  Arena,  March,  1894.)  If  this  report  is  true,  our  ideas  of 
the  formation  and  dissolution  of  parts  of  the  skeleton  must  be 
materially  changed.  We  must  believe  either  that  the  metacarpal 
bones  are  formed  just  before  birth,  after  all  the  rest  of  the  skele- 
ton, or  else  that  bones  once  formed  may  be  reabsorbed  under  the 
influence  of  nervous  shock  or  hysteria.  Either  view  is  nonsense. 


136  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

life  comes  from  such  sources  outside  the  germ  cell  and 
outside  of  heredity.  All  powers  may  be  affected  by  it. 
Perfect  development  demands  the  highest  nutrition,  an 
ideal  never  reached.  In  such  fashion 
'sts>  the  child  may  bear  the  incubus  of  Ibsen's 
"  Ghosts  "  for  which  it  had  no  personal  responsibility. 
"  Spent  passions  and  vanished  sins  "  may  impair  germ 
cells,  male  or  female,  as  they  injure  the  organs  that  pro- 
duce them.  We  must  then  represent  the  perfection  of 
transmission  by  T,  and  T  is  a  fraction,  large  or  small, 
but  always  less  than  unity.  It  would  stand  as  a  re- 
ducing agency,  and  as  such  in  algebra  it  would  be  best 
represented  as  a  divisor.  The  whole  formula  may  be 

multiplied  by  rp,   a   process   that,    like   the  process  Z, 

which  if  it  exists  is  an  extension  of  T,  must  intervene 

between  conception  and  birth. 

This   formula  indicates   simply  the   possibilities  of 

Richard  Roe  as  the  sexless  embryo,  the  joined  proto- 
plasm and  united  chromatin  of  the  two 

Determination  ,,         TI,-  u 

parent  germ  cells.      1ms  germ  has  now 

to  grow  and  expand  by  cell  division. 
But  besides  its  vegetative  growth  two  possible  lines  of 
development  lie  before  it,  one  of  which  it  must  take.  It 
must  assume  sex.  It  must  become  either  male  or  female. 
The  choice  of  the  one  at  the  critical  time  is  as  feasible  as 
that  of  the  other.  But  once  made  the  choice  is  irrevoc- 
able. Thus  far  man  has  found  no  way  to  control  this 
choice  and  Nature  makes  it  for  him.  The  sexless  embryo 
is,  as  it  were,  suspended  on  a  hair,  to  be  turned  to  male  or 
female  by  the  first  stimulus  which  may  reach  it.  In  the 
human  race,  such  impulses  must  come  through  the  moth- 
er. Certain  of  these  forces  have  been  partially  defined. 
It  has  long  been  known  that  with  certain  insects  and 
crustaceans  full  nutrition  increases  the  number  of  fe- 


THE    HEREDITY   OF   RICHARD   ROE. 


137 


males;  starvation  of  the  mother  makes  the  young  male. 
It  may  be  so  with  the  human  race.  In  accordance  with 
certain  known  facts  and  certain  plausible  theories,  Dr. 
Schenck,  of  Vienna,  has  formulated  certain  rules  for  the 
control  of  sex  in  offspring.  Among  other  things  a 
proteid  or  "  training-table  "  diet  before  and  through  the 
critical  period  of  early  pregnancy  should  increase  the 
probability  of  male  offspring ;  a  fat-producing  diet 
should  tend  to  insure  a  daughter.  Other  suggestions 
have  been  made  which  need  not  be  discussed  here.  In 
general,  we  may  say  that  the  determination  at  will  of 
sex  in  offspring  is  not  theoretically  impossible.  The 
elements  involved  are  too  obscure  and  complex  for 
certainty  to  be  probable.  It  is,  moreover,  an  open 
question  whether  the  general  diffusion  of  such  power 
would  be  a  boon  to  mankind. 

In  any  event,  Richard  Roe  became  male.  Whether 
through  the  lean  diet  of  his  mother  or  the  late  union  of 
his  parent  germ  cells,  or  through  some  hidden  cause  or 
impulse  need  not  concern  us  now.  The  fact  of  mascu- 
linity becomes  more  and  more  dominant  as  his  growth 
goes  on.  At  last  it  affects  all  his  activities,  modifies  all 
his  structures,  and  permeates  every  fiber  of  his  being. 
Then  is  Richard  Roe  a  man,  and  our  formula  of  his  pos- 
sibilities is  multiplied  or  modified  by  an  overshadowing 
M.  (male).  But  his  hereditary  characters  are  arranged 
and  assigned  before  the  question  of  his  sex  is  deter- 
mined by  Nature.  Thus  at  birth  we 
Formula  of  life.  ,  -r,-  1  j  -r.  i  i  t 

may  designate  Richard  Roe  by  the  for- 

+        +          +  ctc" 


+  64  ±  n'  +  64  ±  *"  etC''  +  256  ±  if  et°-'  +  1024  ±  n" 


+  H  +  f-$-5+Z-'XM' 


138  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

This  formula  may  be  translated  into  intelligibility  as 
follows  :  Richard  Roe  has  the  sum  of  species  characters : 
race  characters;  one  unequal  fourth  of  father's  pecul- 
iarities; one  unequal  fourth  of  mother's  peculiarities; 
one  sixteenth  of  paternal  grandfather's  peculiarities; 
one  sixteenth  from  maternal  grandfather;  one  sixteenth 
from  each  grandparent ;  one  sixty-fourth  from  each 
great-grandparent,  etc. ;  an  unknown  part  of  the  gain 
through  the  father's  activity ;  an  unknown  part  of  gain 
through  the  mother's  activity  ;  an  unknown  part  of  loss 
the  idleness  or  non-development  of  each ;  an  unknown 
chance  through  prenatal  influences  received  through 
the  mother;  the  whole  multiplied  or  divided  by  the 
influences  arising  from  transmission  or  early  nutrition 
and  to  be  modified  in  every  part  by  the  fact  that  he 
is  a  man. 

But  these  symbols  indicate  only  potentialities.    These 

make  up  the  architect's  plan  on  which  his  life  is  to  be 

built.     The   plan  admits  of  much  play 

Potentialities         fof  devjatjon      Every  wind  that  blows 

not  character.  . 

will  change  it  a  little.     1  hese  elements 

themselves  are  of  varied  character.  They  do  not  be- 
long together  nor  are  they  held  in  place,  so  far  as  we 
know,  by  any  "ego"  except  that  made  by  the  cell  alli- 
ance on  which  they  depend.  Some  of  these  elements 
the  experiences  of  life  will  tend  to  reduce  or  destroy. 
Some  of  them  will  be  systematically  fostered  or  checked 
by  those  who  determine  Richard  Roe's  early  environ- 
ment. The  final  details  will  be  beyond  prediction. 
The  ego  or  self  in  the  life  of  Richard  Roe  is  the  sum 
of  his  inheritance,  bound  together  by  the  resultant  of 
the  consequences  of  the  thoughts  and  deeds  which  have 
been  performed  by  him  and  perhaps  by  others  also. 
Thus  each  day  in  his  life  goes  to  form  a  link  in  the 
chain  which  binds  his  conscious  processes  together.  The 


THE    HEREDITY   OF    RICHARD    ROE. 


139 


"vanished  yesterdays"  are  the  tyrants  of  to-morrow. 
The  higher  heredity  is  the  heredity  from  ourselves.  The 
art  of  life  is  in  a  large  degree  the  process  of  "  hold- 
ing one's  self  together."  The  ego  is  the  expression  of 
the  result  of  this  process. ,  Just  as  "  Eng- 
land "  exists  only  as  the  co-operation 
of  all  Englishmen,  so  does  the  mental 
"  ego  "  exist  only  in  the  co-ordination  of  working  nerve 
cells.  The  theory  that  the  ego  is  a  separate  being 
which  plays  on  the  organs  of  the  brain  as  a  musician  on 
the  keys  of  a  piano,  belongs  not  to  science  but  to  poe- 
try. As  well  think  of  England  as  a  disembodied  organ- 
ism that  plays  on  the  hearts  of  Englishmen,  leading  them 
to  acts  of  glory  or  of  shame.  This,  too,  might  be  poetry ; 
it  is  not  fact. 

The  unity  of  life,  which  is  its  sanity,  depends  on 
bringing  the  various  elements  to  work  as  one  force. 
Duality  or  plurality  in  life,  the  "  leading 
™eeu"ity  °f  of  a  double  life  "  of  any  sort,  is  an  evi- 
dence of  some  kind  of  failure  or  disin- 
tegration. "  Science  finds  no  ego,  self,  or  will  that  can 
maintain  itself  against  the  past."  In  other  words,  from 
the  past,  its  inheritance,  and  its  experience,  the  elements 
of  the  present  are  always  drawn.  The  consciousness  of 
man  is  not  the  whole  of  man.  It  is  not  an  entity  work- 
ing among  materials  foreign  to  itself.  It  is  rather  the 
flame  that  flickers  over  embers  set  on  fire  long  before 
and  whose  burning  may  go  on  long  after  the  individual 
flame  has  ceased  to  be. 

"  The  soul,"  says  Dr.  Edward  A.  Ross,  "  is  not  a 
spiritual  unit,  but  a  treacherous  compound  of  strange 
contradiction  and  warring  elements,  with  traces  of  spent 
passions  and  vestiges  of  ancient  sins,  with  echoes  of 
forgotten  deeds  and  survivals  of  vanished  habits." 
Moreover,  "science  tells  us  of  the  conscious  and  sub- 


140  FOOT-NOTES  TO   EVOLUTION. 

conscious,  of  higher  nerve  cells  and  lower,  of  double 
cerebrum  and  wayward  ganglia.  It  hints  at  many 
voiceless  beings  that  live  out  in  our  body  their  joy  and 
pain  and  scarce  give  sign  dwellers  in  the  subcentres, 
with  whom  it  rnay  be  often  lies  the  initiative  when  the 
conscious  centre  itself  is  free.  This  /  is  no  doubt  a 
hierarchy  or  commonwealth  of  physical  units  that  at 
death  dissolves  and  sinks  below  the  threshold  of  con- 
sciousness." "We  see  that  never  again  can  there  be 
such  an  orgy  of  the  ego  (in  philosophic  thought)  as  that 
led  by  Fichte  and  Hegel." 

Of  course,    some  of  the  above-quoted    phraseology 
is  figurative,  and  could  not  be  applied  literally  to  the 
personality  of  Richard  Roe.     His  self- 
consciousness  arose  from  the  co-opera- 
tive  action    of   his   higher   nerve   cells. 
That   it   arose   from    many,    not    from    any   particular 
one,  gave  it  in   some    degree   the   semblance  of  being 
apart  from  them  all.     But  this  was  only  a  semblance, 
and  the   elements  of  which  his  personality  was  made 
had    been    in    one    way   used    before    him    by    many 
others. 

With  all  this,  we  may  be  sure  that  the  stream  of 
Richard  Roe's  life  will  not  rise  much  above  its  potential 
fountain.  He  will  have  no  powers  far  beyond  those 
potential  in  his  ancestors.  But  who  can  tell  what  pow- 
ers have  remained  latent  in  these  ancestors  ?  It  takes  a 
series  of  peculiar  circumstances  to  bring  any  group  of 
qualities  into  general  notice.  These  men  who  are  famous 
in  spite  of  an  unknown  ancestry  are  not 

necessarily  very  different  from  this  an- 
greatness.  _;  .  .       .  ... 

cestry.     Fame  is  a  jutting  crag  which 

may  project  from  a  very  low  mountain.  Far  higher 
elevations  may  not  catch  the  eye  if  their  outline  is  not 
unusual.  Even  under  the  plebeian  name  by  which  "  Fate 


THE   HEREDITY  OF   RICHARD   ROE.  I4I 

tried  to  conceal  him,"  Richard  Roe  may  receive  a  noble 
heritage.  Doubtless  it  may  be  passed  on  to  the  next 
generation,  not  the  less  noble  because  it  has  not  been 
exposed  to  the  distortions  of  fame.  Real  greatness  is 
as  often  the  expression  of  the  wisdom  of  the  mother  as 
of  anything  the  father  may  have  been  or  done.  B'  and 
X'  are  just  as  potent  as  B  and  X,  though  less  known  to 
the  public.  As  society  is  now  constituted,  the  great 
hearts  and  brains  of  the  future  may  be  looked  for  any- 
where. They  will  not  fail  to  come  when  needed,  and 
in  most  cases  they  will  appear  unheralded  by  ancestral 
notoriety. 

I  made  the  statement  above  that  Richard  Roe  had 
twice  as  many  ancestors  as  his  father  or  his   mother. 

This  is  self-evident,  but  it  is  not  literally 
Counting  one's       ^       The   errQr   CQmes  frQm   tfae  inter_ 

ancestors.  .  ..... 

locking    of    families.      Over   and   over 

again  in  any  line  of  ancestry  strains  of  blood  have 
crossed,  and  the  same  person,  and  therefore  the  whole 
o£  this  person's  ancestors,  will  be  found  in  different 
places  in  the  individual  pedigree.  This  must  happen 
dozens  of  times  in  most  lines  of  ancestry.  The  lack  of 
old  records  obscures  this  fact.  That  something  of  the 
sort  must  occur  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  the  child 
of  to-day  must  have  had  at  the  time  of  Alfred  the  Great 
an  ancestry  of  870,672,000,000  persons.  In  the  time  of 
William  the  Conqueror  (thirty  generations)  this  number 
reaches  8,598,094,592.  This  is  shown  by  the  ordinary 
process  of  computation — two  parents,  four  grandparents, 
eight  great-grandparents,  and  so  on.  As  the  aggregate 
of  Englishmen  in  Alfred's  time,  or  even  in  William's,  was 
but  a  very  small  fraction  of  these  numbers,  most  of  these 
ancestors  must  have  been  repeated  many  times  in  the 
calculation.  Each  person  who  leaves  descendants  is  a 
link  in  the  great  chain  of  life,  or  rather  a  strand  in  life's 


I42  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

great  network.  It  is  certain  that  the  blood  of  each  per- 
son in  Alfred's  time  who  left  capable  descendants  is 
represented  in  every  family  of  England  of  strict  Eng- 
lish descent.  In  other  words,  every  Englishman  is  de- 
scended from  Alfred  the  Great ;  as  very  likely  also 
from  the  peasant  women  whose  cakes  Alfred  is  reputed 
to  have  allowed  to  burn.  Moreover,  there  are  few  if 
any  who  do  not  share  the  blood  of  William  the  Con- 
queror, and  most  ancestral  lines,  if  they  could  be  traced, 
would  go  back  to  him  by  a  hundred  different  strains. 
In  fact,  there  are  few  families  in  the  south  and  east 
of  England  who  have  not  more  Norman  blood  than 
the  present  royal  family.  The  house  of  Guelph  holds 
the  throne  not  through  nearness  to  William,  but 
through  primogeniture,  a  thing  very  different  from 
heredity. 

Mr.  Edward  J.  Edwards,  of  Minneapolis,  has  re- 
cently sent  me  some  very  interesting  studies  in  gene- 
alogy yet  unpublished.  These  concern  the  lineage 
of  his  little  daughter,  my  niece,  Mary  Stockton  Ed- 
wards. 

Mr.  Edwards  find  that  the  little  girl,  like  millions  of 
others,  is  descended  through  at  least  two  different  lines 
from  William  the  Conqueror.  The  line- 

age'  on  the  one  hand'  leads  back  in 
thirty-two  generations  through  the  fam- 
ily names  of  Jordan,  Hawley,  Waldo,  Elderkin,  Drake, 
Grenville,  Courteney,  de  Bohun,  and  Plantagenet  to  Wil- 
liam. Sir  Humphrey  de  Bohun  married  Elizabeth  Plan- 
tagenet, daughter  of  King  Edward  I.  In  the  ancestry 
of  King  Edward  are  the  Saxon  kings  Cedric,  Egbert, 
Alfred,  and  Ethelred,  while  intermarriage  with  other 
royal  lines  brings  in  Hengest,  Hugh  Capet,  Charlemagne, 
Otho  the  Great,  Duncan,  Rurik,  Igor,  San  Fernando,  and 
a  host  of  other  notables  of  whom  one  would  have  less 


THE    HEREDITY   OF    RICHARD   ROE. 


143 


right  to  be  proud.  The  Courteneys,  Earls  of  Devon, 
are  again  descended  from  the  royal  lines  of  France 
(Hugh  Capet)  and  Russia,  but  not  from  William  the 
Conqueror.  To  Courteney  and  Plantagenet  the  lineage 
of  the  Edwards  family  along  other  lines  has  been  traced. 

The  seventy  family  names,  more  or  less,  with  per- 
haps a  thousand  representatives,  in  the  first  line  traced 
out  by  Mr.  Edwards,  are  only  so  many  out  of  billions, 
if  there  were  no  duplications.  If  there  were  no  repeti- 
tions, there  would  be  instead  of  the  thousand  known 
ancestors,  four  billions  of  persons  between  Mary  Stock- 
ton Edwards  and  the  time  of  William  the  Conqueror. 
This  genealogy  is  therefore  but  a  strand  from  an  enor- 
mous network,  which,  if  written  out  in  full,  would  cover 
the  earth  with  names.  Only  the  family  pride  of  the 
Courteneys  and  Drakes  caused  even  this  little  of  per- 
sonal descent  and  personal  history  to  be  retained. 
Their  pride  permitted  this  plebeian  record  of  the  ple- 
beian descendants  of  the  Puritan  John  Drake  of  Wind- 
sor to  be  joined  to  the  sacred  annals  of  the  English 
peerage. 

Most  of  the  English  people  named  in  these  records 

lived   in   Devon   and    Sussex,   from  which    regions   the 

American  representatives  came  to  Amer- 

A"  E^hTn  ica.  The  subordinate  lines  traced  out 
of  noble  birth. 

lead   to   the   earls   of    these   countries. 

They  lead  also  to  many  other  noble  lines  in  England 
and  Scotland.  It  is  certain,  however,  that  in  this  there 
is  nothing  whatever  that  is  exceptional  or  even  unusual. 
These  people  in  America  were  Massachusetts  Puritans, 
plain  farmers,  squires,  and  shipwrights,  with  a  lineage 
or  character  in  no  wise  singular.  Their  sole  important 
heritage  was  the  Puritan  conscience,  not  their  Norman 
blood,  which  they  shared  with  all  their  neighbours. 
Studies  of  this  kind  show  clearly  that  primogeniture  is 


144  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

mainly  responsible  for  the  difference  between  Roundhead 
and  Cavalier,  between  Royalist  and  Puritan.  Round- 
heads and  Puritans  were  descended  from  daughters  and 
younger  brothers.  The  "blue  blood"  flows  only  in  the 
veins  of  the  eldest  son.  But  the  eldest  son  of  the  eldest 
son  forms  but  a  very  small  fragment  of  the  whole. 
Galton's  remark  to  the  effect  that  the  character  of  Eng- 
land has  suffered  through  the  segregation  of  its  strong- 
est representatives  as  nobility  and  their  exposure  to  the 
deteriorating  influences  of  ease  and  unearned  power  is 
scarcely  justified.  A  few  individuals  have  suffered,  but 
not  England.  They  are  only  the  conspicuous  few.  The 
rest  have  joined  the  mass  of  common  men  whose  great- 
ness makes  England  great. 

One  of  the  many  daughters  of  some  king  marries  a 

nobleman ;  a  later  scion  of  nobility  is  joined  to  some 

squire ;  some   daughter   of   a   squire   is 

Effect  of  married  to  a  farmer.     The  farmer's  chil- 

pnmogemture. 

dren    thus   have    royal    blood   in    their 

veins.  Or,  by  reverse  process,  plebeian  blood  may 
enter — and  to  its  advantage — the  bluest  of  nobility. 
The  thirty  generations  since  William's  time  each  con- 
tain a  far  and  wide  mixture  of  blood.  That  the  de- 
scendants of  these  crosses  are  alive  to-day  indicates 
that  in  the  main  each  individual  has  a  sound  heredity. 
For  a  rotten  link  means  the  breaking  of  the  chain. 
Even  royal  blood  is  not  necessarily  degenerate.  That 
which  was  so  has  been  strengthened  by  plebeian  strains. 
There  can  be  few  if  any  Englishmen  or  Americans  to- 
day but  have  royal  blood  in  their  veins.  There  is 
probably  not  a  king  living  who  has  not  somewhere 
in  his  ancestry  the  bar  sinister  of  the  common  peas- 
ant. For  of  one  blood,  after  all,  are  all  the  nations 
of  the  earth,  as  well  as  the  men  that  make  up  these 
nations. 


THE    HEREDITY   OF   RICHARD   ROE.  145 

Another  necessary  conclusion  is  this,  that  race  char- 
acteristics  imply    direct    personal   relationship   among 
those  who  exhibit  them.     The  English- 
Origin  of  the         men  of  to.day  are   such   because   they 

fe"glisl  are   related   by   blood.      They    are   the 

variously  intermingled  descendants  of 
some  few  robust  families  of  a  thousand  years  ago,  a 
hundred  thousand  of  them  at  the  most.  "Saxon  and 
Norman  and  Dane  are  we."  From  these  families — 
Dane,  Norman,  and  Saxon — the  weak,  the  infertile,  and 
the  unfortunate  are  constantly  undergoing  elimination, 
leaving  the  strong  and  fecund  to  persist.  The  withered 
branches  are  only  kept  in  existence  through  misplaced 
charity  which  continues  the  pauper  ;  or  through  bad  so- 
cial conditions  which  propagate  the  criminal.  Pauper- 
ism, criminality,  and  folly  have  their  lineage,  but  it  is 
not  a  long  one;  and  wiser  councils  will  make  it  shorter 
than  it  now  is.  This  persistence  of  the  strong  shows 
itself  in  the  prevalence  of  the  leading  qualities  in  the 
dominate  strains.  To  these  dominant  ancestors  every 
line  of  deviation  will  be  found  to  lead,  when  we  come  to 
follow  it,  backward.  In  following  the  pedigree  of  an 
individual  backward  for  a  thousand  years,  we  find  that 
millions  of  duplications  must  occur  in  his  ancestry. 
That  is,  thousands  of  persons  would  be  reached  from 
one  to  a  thousand  times  each  in  the  following  up  of 
different  ancestral  lines.  The  growth  of  colonial  types 
comes  from  the  narrowing  of  the  range  of  crossing 
and  from  intermarriage  with  lines  not  English,  which 
occurs  most  frequently  outside  of  England.  This  is 
especially  true  in  the  United  States.  But  in  a  few 
centuries  these  same  conditions  will  unite  to  form 
a  "  Brother  Jonathan  "  as  definite  in  qualities  and  as 
"  set  in  his  ways "  as  his  ancestor,  the  traditional 
"John  Bull." 


I46  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

Race  types  thus  arise  from  the  "  survival  of  the  ex- 
isting," its  best  results  modified  and  preserved  by  the 
"survival  of  the  fittest."     Actual  pres- 
Race  types  and      encg  in  a  country  'of  certain  ancestral 
the  survival  of  .  _  _,. 

the  existing  stocks  is  the  first  element.     Their  char- 

acters become  workable,  durable,  and  at 
last  "  ineradicable  "  by  the  survival  of  those  in  whom 
those  characters  are  elements  of  life.  An  "  unwork- 
able "  heredity  destroys  its  possessor,  and  with  him  the 
line  of  possible  descent. 


VI. 

THE   PHYSICAL   BASIS   OF   HEREDITY. 
BY  FRANK  MACE  MCFARLAND. 

ALL  living  organisms,  animals  as  well  as  plants,  are 
built  up  of  certain   elementary  parts  or  units  termed 

cells.     No  matter  how  widely  divergent 
The  cell  theory.  ,  *     . 

in  external  appearance  or  habitat  they 

may  be,  the  elephant  and  the  lily,  the  sponge  and  the 
palm,  are  each  aggregations  of  structural  units,  funda- 
mentally alike,  and  no  form  of  animal  or  plant  life  is 
known  to  exist  which  does  not  conform  to  this  general 
law.  To  the  studies  of  Schleiden  upon  plants  and  of 
Schwann  upon  animals  (iS^S-'^)  we  owe  the  foundation 
of  the  "cell  theory,"  more  precisely  formulated  by  Max 
Schultze  in  1861.  Since  the  time  of  these  pioneer 
studies  upon  the  cell,  investigation  has  been  carried  on 
by  a  constantly  increasing  number  of  students  with 
methods  and  instruments  steadily  improved  in  their 
efficiency,  and  the  accumulated  results  already  throw  a 
wealth  of  light  upon  some  of  the  most  abstruse  prob- 
lems of  biology.  Yet  the  most  enthusiastic  and  san- 
guine of  these  workers  will  not  assert  that  we  have 
advanced  further  than  the  threshold  of  this  domain  in 
which  are  concealed  the  answers  to  the  questions  as  to 
the  ultimate  structure  of  living  matter  and  even  to  the 
very  nature  of  life  itself. 


I48  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

The  accumulating  results  of  patient  study  have 
totally  changed  the  earlier  conceptions  of  the  cell.  Two 
and  a  quarter  centuries  ago,  by  the  aid  of  the  newly  in- 
vented microscope,  minute  cavities  were  discovered  in 
certain  plant  tissues,  and  from  their  resemblance  to  a 
honeycomb  were  termed  "  cells."  This  study  of  such 
substances  as  ordinary  cork,  in  which  the  cells  are  dead 
and  empty,  easily  led  to  the  idea  that  the  cell  wall  was 
the  all-important  feature,  and  it  has  not  been  until 
within  the  past  forty  years  that  this  error  has  been  set 

aside.  The  name  "  cell  "  itself  is  some- 
The  meaning  of  fa  misleading  in  that  it  implies,  in  the 
the  term  "cell." 

ordinary  usage,    a   cavity  with   definite 

walls  of  considerable  firmness,  which  is  by  no  means 
always  true.  Great  groups  of  cells  have  no  solid  walls 
whatever,  but  are  soft  and  changeable  in  form,  and  the 
majority  of  cells  have  no  cavities,  but  are  masses  of 
semifluid  consistence.  The  appearance  of  empty  cavi- 
ties, or  clear  fluid-filled  spaces,  is  a  condition  which 
comes  about  in  plant  cells  late  in  life,  and  scarcely  ever 
in  animal  ones.  The  unwearied  study  of  biologists, 
aided  by  constantly  improved  instruments  and  methods 
of  research,  have  shown  that  it  is  the  contents  of  the 
cell  which  form  the  essential  living  substance.  But, 
although  the  cell  wall  has  lost  the  significance  which  it 
formerly  was  held  to  possess,  the  term  cell  has  become 
firmly  fixed  by  usage,  and  such  terms  as  "  Energide," 
as  proposed  by  Sachs,  though  much  more  happily  chosen, 
are  very  slow  of  adoption. 

The  simplest  forms  of  life  of  which  we  know  any- 
thing are  minute  microscopic  organisms  found  in  both 
fresh  and  salt  water  and  under  the  most  varied  condi- 
tions. Each  one  of  these  is  composed  of  a  single  cell, 
and  each  one  carries  out  in  a  general  way  the  varied 
functions  of  movement,  respiration,  growth  and  multi- 


THE   PHYSICAL   BASIS   OF   HEREDITY. 


149 


plication,  assimilation,  secretion,  excretion,  irritability, 
etc.,  functions  which,  in  multicellular  organisms,  are  di- 
vided up  among  a  vast  number  of  the 
Unicellular  and     constituent  cells.     Thus  while  the  one- 

multicellular  ,  ... 

organisms  celled  amoeba  has  its  muscular,  nervous, 

and  digestive  systems  united  within  the 
limits  of  a  single  microscopic  mass  of  protoplasm,  the 
higher  animals  have  their  various  functions  divided  up 
among  definite  groups  of  thousands  and  millions  of  cells, 
each  group  carrying  out  some  particular  function.  In 
response  to  this  physiological  division  of  labour  among 
the  cells  has  come  about  a  corresponding  modification 
in  their  structure,  so  that  we  find  certain  forms  and  types 
characteristic  of  the  particular  function  which  the  re- 
spective cells  carry  out.  The  muscle  cell,  for  example, 
is  one  whose  special  work  is  that  of  contraction.  Within 
its  substance  has  been  developed  a  system  of  highly  con- 
tractile fibrils,  and  the  whole  cell  has  assumed  an  elon- 
gated shape.  For  this  one  function  of  contractility  have 
been  sacrificed  more  or  less  completely  the  other  prop- 
erties of  protoplasm,  and  thus  it  has  become  dependent 
upon  its  fellows  which  have  assumed  various  other 
functions.  The  bone  cell,  the  gland  cell,  the  epithelial 
cell — all  have  equally  complicated  specializations  of 
structure  in  other  directions  and,  all  united  together 
into  an  organic  community,  are  co-ordinated  and  di- 
rected in  their  various  activities  by  the  nerve  cells. 

However  diverse  the  form  and  function  of  the  adult 
tissues  may  be,  they  all  have  the  same  fundamental 

structure,  and  they  all  have  a  common 
The  essential  od  in  and  descent  frQm  th  fertilized 

parts  of  the  cell. 

egg  cell.     The  essential  parts  of  a  cell 

consist  of  the  cell  body  and  the  cell  nucleus,  which  to- 
gether make  up  the  living  substance.  The  body  of  the 
cell  is  made  up  principally  of  a  granular,  viscid,  semi- 


150 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


fluid  substance  termed  protoplasm  or  cytoplasm.  By 
this  term  is  understood  not  a  homogeneous,  definite 

chemical  substance,  but  rather  an  organ- 
The  protoplasm.     ...  .  , 

ized    association  of  extremely  complex 

organic  compounds,  belonging  mainly  to  the  group  of 
proteids.  The  majority  of  these  substances  are  but  lit- 
tle understood  as  yet,  nor  is  this  at  all  surprising  when 
we  reflect  that  the  living  cell  is  the  theater  of  constant 
changes,  both  synthetic  and  analytic,  and  that  the  dead 
protoplasm  subjected  to  the  chemist's  analyses  is  no 
longer  protoplasm,  but  has  suffered  profound  transfor- 
mations in  passing  from  the  living  to  the  lifeless  con- 
dition. 

In  its  simplest  form  the  cell  is  an  approximately 
spherical,  viscid,  granular  sUucture  in  which  oftentimes 
there  may  be  made  out,  in  the  living  state,  more  solid 
substances  in  the  form  of  threads  or  networks  of  delicate 
filaments.  This  threadwork  is  probably  made  up  of 
rows  of  granules,  and  varies  in  arrangement  in  different 
cells  and  in  different  parts  of  the  same  cell.  Within 
the  meshes  of  this  reticulum  is  inclosed  a  clearer  fluid- 
like  portion — the  cytolymph  or  hyaloplasm. 

Inclosed  in  the  cytoplasm  lies  a  spherical  or  ovoidal 
body — the  nucleus — set  off  from  the  rest  of  the  cell  by 

a  more  or  less  distinct  boundary  mem- 
The  nucleus.  ,  „.  .  ... 

brane.      This   structure    is    of   constant 

occurrence  in  all  cells,  and  plays  an  extremely  impor- 
tant part  in  their  life  history,  forming  apparently  the 
controlling  centre  of  the  constructive  processes  in  growth 
and  multiplication.  Its  significance  will  be  better  un- 
derstood further  on  in  connection  with  the  problems  of 
cell  development  and  heredity. 

In  chemical  and  physical  properties  the  nucleus 
differs  markedly  from  the  rest  of  the  protoplasm.  When 
studied  in  detail  by  the  aid  of  suitable  reagents  and 


THE    PHYSICAL   BASIS   OF    HEREDITY.  151 

magnification,  it  is  found  to  consist  essentially  of  a 
delicate  network  or  system  of  threads,  the  "  linin  net- 
work," bearing  granules  of  a  substance  rich  in  phos- 
phorus, which,  from  its  affinity  for  certain  staining 
fluids,  has  been  termed  "  chromatin."  One  or  more 
rounded  structures,  behaving  in  certain  definite  ways 
toward  reagents,  may  also  be  found  in  the  nucleus. 
These,  the  "  nucleoli,"  are  probably  not  always  of  the 
same  nature  in  different  cells,  and  their  significance  is 
at  present  much  less  clearly  understood  than  is  the  case 
with  the  other  nuclear  structures.  Filling  the  meshes 
of  the  nuclear  network  is  found  a  clear  semi-fluid  ma- 
terial, the  "  karyolymph,"  and  a  more  or  less  clearly  de- 
fined wall,  the  nuclear  membrane,  incloses  the  nuclear 
substances  and  separates  them  from  the  cytoplasm. 

In  1876  Van  Beneden  announced  the  discovery  of  a 
minute  rounded  body  at  the  poles  of  the  spindle  in  the 
dividing  eggs  of  Dicyemids,  which  has  since  been  found 
in  nearly  all  kinds  of  animal  cells,  both  in  division  and 
in  the  "  resting  condition,"  and  may  probably  be  re- 
garded as  of  universal  occurrence,  so  far  at  least  as 
animal  cells  are  concerned.  In  plants,  however,  it  has 
thus  far  been  identified  with  certainty  in  but  few  forms. 

To  this  structure  Boveri,  in  1888,  gave 
The  centrosome. 

the  name  of  "centrosome,    and  showed 

it  to  be  a  cell  organ  of  probably  constant  occurrence 
and  of  the  greatest  significance  in  cell  multiplication. 
It  often  lies  in  a  more  or  less  specialized  area  of  the 
cytoplasm,  the  "  attraction  sphere,"  or  "  archoplasm," 
near  the  nucleus,  but  in  some  forms  it  is  doubtless  with- 
out any  such  surrounding  structure. 

The  foregoing  paragraphs  must  be  taken  merely  as 
the  briefest  outline  of  cell  structure.  It  would  far  ex- 
ceed the  limits  of  this  article  to  attempt  to  discuss  the 
finer  detail  of  the  subject,  or  to  enter  upon  the  many 


152  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

points  of  interest  which  are  still  a  matter  of  contro- 
versy. 

According  to  many  earlier  observers,  and  especially 
clearly  enunciated  by  the  pioneers  of  the  cell  theory, 
Schleiden  and  Schwann,  it  was  generally  assumed  that 
cells  arose  by  a  sort  of  crystallization  out  of  an  unorgan- 
ized ground  substance — the  "  cytoblastema  "  of  Schlei- 
den. This  idea,  however,  was  soon  overthrown  by  the 
more  complete  observations  of  von  Mohl,  linger, 
Naegeli,  Remak,  Kolliker,  and  others,  and  the  founda- 
tion was  laid  for  the  important  generalization  of  Vir- 
chow, "  omnis  cellula  e  cellula"  which  has  since  become  one 
of  the  most  fundamental  principles  of 
Cell  multipli-  biology.  Every  cell  is  derived  from  a 
cation. 

pre-existing  cell  by  a  process  of  division, 

and  this  process  has  gone  on  unceasingly  from  the  time 
when  life  first  began  down  to  the  present  moment.  All 
life  comes  from  pre-existing  life,  and,  whatever  may  have 
in  some  past  time  occurred,  the  spontaneous  production 
of  living  substance  from  a  non-living  condition  does  not 
now  exist. 

One  of  the  earliest  results  of  the  study  of  cell  multi- 
plication was  the  discovery  that  division  of  the  nucleus 
precedes  the  division  of  the  cell  body.  Furthermore,  a 
careful  examination  of  the  different  phases  of  the  pro- 
cess offers  the  strongest  proof  that  the  most  important 
feature  of  this  division,  an  end  to  which  all  the  other 
processes  are  subsidiary,  is  the  exact  halving  of  a  certain 
nuclear  substance,  the  chromatin,  between  the  two 
daughter  cells  which  result  from  the  division.  To  gain 

a  clear  conception  of  this  process  of  in- 
Karyokmesis.  ,.  .    .   .  ,  ,  .        .     „ 

direct  cell  division,  or  "  karyokmesis, 

let  us  consider  the  changes  which  take  place  in  typical 
cell  multiplication.  Two  parallel  series  of  changes  oc- 
cur nearly  simultaneously,  the  one  affecting  the  nucleus, 


THE   PHYSICAL   BASIS   OF    HEREDITY. 


153 


the  other  the  cytoplasm.  In  the  so-called  "  resting " 
nucleus — i.  e.,  the  nucleus  not  in  active  division — the 
chromatin,  as  we  have  seen,  exists  usually  in  the  form 
of  scattered  granules  arranged  along  the  linin  network, 
and  does  not  colour  readily  with  nuclear  stains  (Fig. 
5,  A}.  As  division  approaches  these  chromatin  gran- 
ules become  aggregated  together  in  certain  definite 
areas,  forming  usually  a  convoluted  thread  or  skein, 
which  now  readily  takes  up  the  nuclear  stains  which  may 
be  used.  In  some  nuclei  this  skein  is  in  the  form  of  a 
single  long  filament,  in  others  the  chromatin  is  divided 
up  from  the  first  into  a  series  of  segments,  a  condition 
which  soon  follows  in  the  case  of  a  single  filament  (Fig. 
5,  J3).  By  transverse  fission  the  latter  breaks  up  into  a 

series  of  segments,  the  "  chromosomes," 
'  chrom°-          the  number  of  which  is  constant  for  each 

species  of  animal  or  plant.  Thus  in  the 
common  mouse  there  are  twenty-four,  in  the  onion 
sixteen,  in  the  sea  urchin  eighteen,  and  in  certain  sharks 
thirty-six.  The  number  may  be  quite  small,  as,  for  ex- 
ample, in  Asian's,  a  cylindrical  parasitic  worm  inhabiting 
the  alimentary  canal  of  the  horse.  Here  the  number  is 
either  two  or  four,  depending  upon  the  variety  exam- 
ined. In  other  forms  the  number  may  be  so  large  as 
to  render  counting  exceedingly  difficult  or  impossible. 
In  all  cases,  however,  one  fact  is  to  be  especially  noted 
— viz.,  the  number  is  always  an  even  one,  a  striking  fact 
which  finds  its  explanation  in  the  phenomena  of  fertil- 
ization to  be  discussed  later  on. 

While  the  chromatin  is  collecting  into  the  form  of 
the  chromosomes  the  nuclear  membrane  has  disappeared. 
The  chromosomes  soon  reach  their  maximum  staining 
capacity,  and  appear  usually  as  a  collection  of  rods  or 
bands  of  deeply  staining  substance  lying  free  in  the 
cytoplasm  (Fig.  5,  C). 


154  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

While  this  is  taking  place  in  the  nucleus,  another 
series  of  changes  has  been  gone  through  with  by  the 

centrosome  and  the  cytoplasm  immedi- 
Division  of  the  ^.  surrounding  it.  We  have  already 
centrosome.  . 

indicated  the  presence  or  the  centrosome 

as  a  minute  spherical  structure  lying  at  one  side  of  the 
nucleus.  This  body  assumes  an  ellipsoidal  form,  con-, 
stricts  transversely  into  a  dumbbell-shaped  figure,  and 
divides  into  two  daughter  centrosomes,  which  at  first  lie 
side  by  side  but  soon  move  apart  (Fig.  5,  A).  Around 
each  of  them  is  gradually  developed  a  stellate  figure 
composed  of  a  countless  number  of  delicate  fibrils  radi- 
ating out  in  all  directions  from  the  centrosome  as  a 
centre.  This  "  aster  "  or  "astrosphere  "  is  at  first  small 
in  extent,  but  grows  in  size  progressively  as  the  two 
centres  move  apart,  apparently  being  derived  from  a  re- 
arrangement and  modification  of  the  thread-like  net- 
work of  the  cytoplasm  under  the  influence  of  the  cen- 
trosomes (Fig.  5,  B  and  C). 

Between  these  two  asters,  which  lie  a  short  distance 
apart  and  at  one  side  of  the  nucleus,  a  spindle-shaped 
system  of  delicate  fibrils  may  often  be 
made  out,  stretching  from  the  centre  of 
one  aster  to  that  of  the  other.  This  fusiform  figure  is 
termed  the  "central  spindle"  (Fig.  5,  D).  The  two 
asters,  together  with  the  central  spindle,  form  what  is 
termed  the  "  amphiaster  "  or  the  "  achromatic  "  portion 
of  the  karyokinetic  figure.  The  two  series  of  changes 
in  nucleus  and  cytoplasm,  which  have  thus  far  gone  on 
apparently  independently  of  each  other,  now  become 
closely  interrelated  in  that,  as  the  nuclear  membrane 
disappears,  a  system  of  fibrils  grows  out  from  each 
astrosphere  which  attach  themselves  to  the  individual 
chromosomes  (Fig.  5,  D).  These  "  mantle  fibres  "  insert 
themselves  along  the  chromosomes  in  such  a  way  that 


R 


FIG.  5. — Cell  division  in  the  Salamander.  (After  Drttner.) 
A,  resting  nucleus  stage,  centrosome  below  divided.  B,  skein  stage,  the  chromatin 
visible  as  a  convoluted  band  ;  the  daughter  centrosomes  have  separated.  C,  the  nuclear 
membrane  has  disappeared,  a  few  of  the  chromosomes  lying  free  in  the  cytoplasm.  D, 
central  spindle  complete,  the  chromosomes,  already  splitting,  are  being  drawn  to  the  spin- 
dle. E,  metaphase.  F,  anaphase.  The  chromosomes  are  drawn  to  the  poles. 

155 


156  FOOT-NOTES  TO   EVOLUTION. 

each  segment  receives  a  series  of  fibrils  from  each  pole 
of  the  amphiaster,  the  two  series  being  attached  along 
opposite  sides  of  the  chromosomes.  Under  the  influence 
of  these  fibres,  probably  by  direct  pulling,  the  chromo- 
somes, now  bent  into  V-  or  U-shaped  loops,  tend  to  place 
themselves  in  a  circle  around  the  centre  of  the  spindle, 
transversely  to  its  long  axis,  and  form  the  "  equatorial 
plate"  (Fig.  5,  £). 

The  changes  thus  far  constitute  the  "  prophases  "  of 
the  division.     The  "  metaphases  "  following  these  con- 
sist primarily  in  the  longitudinal  splitting 
Splitting  of  the      of   each    chromosome   and   the   moving 
chromosomes. 

apart  of  the  halves.     This  longitudinal 

splitting  of  the  chromosome  into  two  equivalent  parts 
forms  the  most  important  act  of  the  whole  cell  division, 
and  is  of  the  greatest  theoretical  significance.  By  it 
the  chromatin  substance  of  the  original  nucleus  is  equally 
distributed  between  the  two  daughter  nuclei,  so  that 
each  receives  a  half  of  each  original  chromosome.  The 
elaborate  mechanism  and  consequent  expenditure  of 
energy  involved  in  this  careful  longitudinal  division  of 
each  chromosome,  rather  than  a  simple  mass  division, 
such  as  might  be  brought  about  by  far  less  complicated 
means,  indicates  clearly  that  the  distribution  of  the  defi- 
nite organization  of  the  chromatin  to  the  daughter  cells 
is  of  primary  importance,  a  conclusion  which  is  further 
strengthened  by  much  evidence  too  extended  to  be  en- 
tered upon  here. 

In  the  "  anaphases  "  and  "  telophases,"  which  in- 
clude the  closing  stages  of  division,  the  daughter  chro- 
mosomes migrate  along  the  fibres  of  the  central  spindle 
toward  its  poles,  perhaps  through  the  direct  contraction 
of  the  mantle  fibres  under  the  influence  of  the  centro- 
some,  though  this  and  many  other  points  regarding  the 
forces  at  work  must  be  left  for  future  investigation 


THE    PHYSICAL   BASIS   OF    HEREDITY. 


157 


to  decide  (Fig.  5,  f}.  Arrived  at  the  poles  the  V- 
shaped  chromosomes  become  grouped  in  a  star-shaped 
figure,  the  "  aster,"  their  outer  ends  become  again 
joined  together  in  the  form  of  a  tangled  skein,  the  in- 
dividual chromatin  granules  separate  somewhat  along 
the  threads  of  the  linin  network,  their  deeply  staining 
quality  is  decreased,  and  a  new  nuclear  membrane  devel- 
ops around  each  group  of  chromosomes.  Simultaneous- 
ly with  this  the  cytoplasm  constricts  across  the  middle 
of  a  somewhat  elongated  cell,  resulting  in  complete  di- 
vision in  the  equatorial  plane  of  the  spindle,  and  two 
separate  daughter  cells  result.  Each  of  these  is  made 
up  of  cytoplasm  containing  a  centrosome  and  a  nucleus, 
similar  in  all  respects  to  the  parent  cell  from  which  it 
has  arisen. 

A  simple  tabulation  of  the  changes  just  described  is 
as  follows: 

Phases  of  Cell  Division  by  Karyokinesis. 

(  i.  Resting  nucleus. 
I.   Prophases j  2    Skein  stage  of  chromatin. 

(  3.  Segmented  skein. 

II.  Metaphase J  4-  Equatorial   plate    and    splitting    of 

(  chromosomes. 

S5.  Movement  of  chromosomes  to  poles 
and  formation  of 

6.  Segmented  daughter  skeins. 

IV.  Telophases. ...  J  7-  Reconstruction  of  nucleus. 

(  8.  Division  of  cytoplasm. 

It  is  readily  seen  that  the  culmination  of  the  process 
lies  in  the  splitting  of  the  chromosomes  and  the  separa- 
tion of  their  component  halves  to  form  the  two  new 
daughter  nuclei. 

In  the  foregoing  description  of  the  changes  typ- 
ically passed  through  by  an  animal  cell  in  division, 


158  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

no  attempt  has  been  made  even  to  indicate  the  many 
variations  in  detail  which  occur  in  different  animals  and 
plants.  These  are  numerous,  but  do  not  affect  the  gen- 
eral plan  nor  the  fundamental  goal,  which  is  always  and 
invariably  the  same — viz.,  the  equal,  longitudinal  divi- 
sion of  the  chromosomes  or  the  chromatin  band  of  the 
parent  nucleus  between  the  two  daughter  nuclei. 

Another  method  of  cell  division,  formerly  taken  to 

be  the  universal   one,  has  since  been  shown  to  occur 

solely   as  a  stage    in  the   degenerative 

changes  of  cells  which  are  upon  the 
division.  .  .  .  . 

downward  road  to  disintegration,  and  in 

which  the  power  of  multiplication  is  about  at  an  end. 
In  this,  the  "  direct  "  or  "  amitotic  "  form  of  cell  divi- 
sion, the  cell  nucleus  is  simply  constricted  into  two  por- 
tions preceding  the  constriction  of  the  cytoplasm.  This 
method  stands  in  marked  contrast  to  the  elaborate 
mechanism  which  insures  the  exact  distribution  of  the 
nuclear  substance  in  the  karyokinetic  or  indirect  method. 

Every  multicellular  organism  arises  by  a  process  of 
division  from  a  single  cell,  the  fertilized  germ  or  egg 
cell,  which  in  turn  has  been  cut  off  from  the  cells  of  a 
pre-existing  individual.  Out  of  the  group  of  cells  which 
result  from  the  continued  division  of  the  germ  cell  and 
its  descendants  are  differentiated  the  various  tissues  and 
organs  of  the  body  through  which  the  vital  functions  are 
carried  on.  Those  tissues  and  organs  which  perform 
functions  pertaining  directly  to  the  existence  of  the  indi- 
vidual have  been  termed  "somatic,"  and 

"  Somatic  "  and  their  constituent  cells  the  "  somatic  "  or 
reproductive  ,  .  ,.  .  .  . 

issues  body  cells,   in  contradistinction  to    the 

reproductive  tissues  or  cells  whose  func- 
tion concerns  the  continuance  of  the  species.  In  some 
forms  these  two  groups  of  cells,  the  somatic  and  the 


THE    PHYSICAL   BASIS   OF    HEREDITY. 


159 


reproductive,  become  isolated  from  each  other  quite 
early  in  development ;  in  one  case,  indeed,  the  differen- 
tiation of  reproductive  cells  from  the  somatic  ones  has 
been  traced  by  Boveri  back  to  the  first  division  of  the  egg. 
This  case  of  Ascaris  megalocephala  is  so  striking  and  of  such 
fundamental  theoretical  importance  that  it  must  not  be 
passed  without  notice,  for  in  it  we  find  marked  differences 
between  the  somatic  and  reproductive  cells  in  their  nu- 
clear structure,  their  relative  amount  of  chromatin,  and 
mode  of  division.  The  egg  of  Ascaris  has  been  the 
classical  object  for  cytological  studies  on  account  of  its 
small  number  of  chromosomes  (two  in  variety  univalens, 
four  in  bivalens),  their  large  size,  and  the  diagrammatic 
clearness  of  the  changes  which  take  place  in  division. 
In  the  division  of  the  fertilized  egg  cell  we  have  two 
(in  univalens)  long  chromosomes  handed  over  to  each 

daughter   cell.      As   these   two   cells  in 
Differentiation  of  turn  divide,  a  striking  difference  is  seen 
reproductive  and    Jn   tfae   karyokinetic   figures.      In    Fig.   6, 
somatic  tissues 
in  Ascaris  '  sucn  a  two-celled  stage  is  seen  from 

the  pole ;  in  Fig.  6,  £,  a  slightly  later 
stage  in  side  view  of  the  spindle.  In  the  upper  cell 
of  Fig.  6,  A,  the  division  is  of  the  usual  form,  the  two 
chromosomes  split  longitudinally,  and  their  two  halves 
travel  to  opposite  poles  of  the  spindle  (Fig.  6,  £).  But 
in  the  lower  cell  this  is  not  the  case.  The  central  por- 
tion of  the  two  chromosomes  is  broken  up  into  a  large 
number  of  minute  chromatin  granules  which  divide,  and, 
as  shown  in  Fig.  6,  By  form  the  only  portion  of  the  chro- 
mosomes drawn  up  to  the  poles  and  entering  into  the 
structure  of  the  resting  nuclei  after  the  division  is  com- 
plete. The  large  swollen  outer  ends  of  the  chromo- 
somes are  cast  off  into  the  cytoplasm  and  are  eventually 
absorbed,  playing  no  further  part  as  nuclear  structures. 
Fig.  6,  C,  shows  the  four-celled  stage,  in  which  a  marked 

12 


!6o  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

difference  in  the  size  of  the  nuclei  of  the  upper  and  lower 
cells  is  visible.     Lying  near  the  margins  of  the  lower 


FlG.  6. — Reduction  of  the  chromatin  in  the  cleavage  of  the  egg  of  Ascaris 
megalocephala  var.  univalens.     (After  Boveri.) 


THE   PHYSICAL   BASIS   OF   HEREDITY.  ifa 

cells  are  the  remnants  of  the  ends  of  the  chromosomes 
which  have  been  cast  off  in  the  division.  In  Fig.  6,  Z>, 
the  four-celled  stage  is  shown  with  the  karyokinetic 
figures  of  the  next  division.  In  the  low^r  cells  the 
spindles  are  seen  from  the  pole,  the  chromatin  is  pres- 
ent in  the  reduced  amount  in  the  form  of  small  granules. 
In  the  upper  left-hand  cell  the  two  full  chromosomes 
are  seen,  each  split  longitudinally,  while  the  upper  right- 
hand  cell  shows  a  repetition  of  the  reduction  phenomenon 
— viz.,  the  central  portion  of  the  two  chromosomes, 
broken  up  into  granules,  alone  enters  into  the  spindle 
figure,  the  outer  ends  being  cast  off  into  the  cytoplasm, 
where  they  suffer  a  similar  fate  to  those  of  the  lower 
cell  in  the  previous  division.  The  next  division  repeats 
the  process,  one  cell  retaining  two  full  chromosomes, 
while  all  the  others  have  the  reduced  amount.  This 
takes  place  for  five  successive  divisions  and  then  ceases; 
from  the  one  cell  having  the  two  full  chromosomes, 
the  reproductive  tissues  develop,  the  others  with  reduced 
chromatin  form  the  somatic  tissues.  Thus  is  accom- 
plished a  visible  structural  differentiation  of  the  nuclei  of 
the  reproductive  cells  which  distinguishes  them  sharply 
from  all  the  somatic  tissues  in  Ascaris.  We  shall  see 
further  on  that  there  is  abundant  evidence  in  favour  of 
the  theory  that  the  nucleus — i.  e.,  the  chromatin — is  the 
bearer  of  hereditary  influences  from  one  generation  to 
the  next,  and  that  the  specific  development  and  functions 
of  each  individual  cell  are  dependent  upon  the  specific 
changes  which  take  place  in  the  chromatin  of  its  nucleus. 
In  this  light  the  almost  isolated  case  of  Ascaris  pos- 
sesses a  value  and  interest  that  can  not  be  overesti- 
mated. 

While  in  the  higher  forms  of  animals  and  plants  we 
find  a  sharp  differentiation  of  their  tissues  into  somatic 
and  reproductive  or  germ  cells,  we  must  bear  in  mind 


162  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

that  not  in  all  forms  is  this  power  of  the  reproduction 
of  the  whole  organism  so  sharply  limited  to  the  germ 
cells  alone.  The  familiar  propagation  of  plants  by  cut- 
tings, the  regeneration  of  complete  animals  from  small 
portions  of  their  somatic  tissues  in  many  lower  forms, 
and  numerous  other  considerations  such  as  these,  show 
clearly  that  the  difference  between  the  powers  of  somatic 
and  germinal  cells  is  but  one  of  degree;  that  while  in 
higher  organisms  the  two  seem  sharply  defined  from 
each  other,  a  series  of  lower  forms  may  be  taken  which 
will  show  the  intermediate  steps  in  this  gradual  speciali- 
zation of  function. 

In  the  unicellular  organisms  we  have  most  interest- 
ing examples  of  the  fundamental  facts  of  reproduction, 

and  through  an  examination  of  these 
Reproduction  in  in  ^  ^  ^  .  m 

Protozoa.  , 

complicated  processes  of  the   Metazoa. 

Each  of  these  lowest  forms  consists  of  a  single  cell  in 
which  are  carried  out  in  a  generalized  way  the  complex 
physiological  functions  which,  in  many  celled  animals, 
are  divided  up  among  cell  groups.  In  reproduction  the 
animal  simply  divides  into  two,  the  division  of  the 
nucleus  preceding  that  of  the  cytoplasm,  and  the 
method  is  usually  a  more  or  less  modified  karyokinetic 
one.  This  mode  of  multiplication  continues  in  most 
forms  for  a  certain  number  of  generations,  and  then  the 
necessity  for  conjugation — i.  e.,  a  temporary  or  perma- 
nent fusion  with  another  individual — sets  in.  If  this 

conjugation  be  prevented,  the  animal 
Conjugation.  .  .  .  f  , 

soon  shows  increasing  signs  of  degen- 
eration which  result  in  death.  This  "senescence"  of 
the  powers  of  growth  and  multiplication  can  only  be 
checked  by  the  admixture  of  new  nuclear  substances 
from  an  entirely  different  individual  by  conjugation. 
In  its  simplest  terms  this  process  is  found  in  Chilodon, 


THE   PHYSICAL   BASIS   OF    HEREDITY.  163 

according  to  Henneguy.  Chilodon  is  a  minute  fresh- 
water infusorian,  which  multiplies  for  a  considerable 
period  of  time  by  transverse  division.  After  a  time, 
however,  the  physiological  necessity  for  conjugation 
ensues.  The  animals  having  placed  themselves  side  by 
side  in  pairs  and  partly  fused  together,  the  nucleus  of 
each  individual  divides  into  two  portions,  one  of  which 
passes  from  each  infusor  into  the  other  to  unite  with  the 
half  remaining  stationary.  The  two  then  separate,  each 
having  received  a  half  of  the  nucleus  of  the  other. 
After  thus  trading  experiences,  as  it  might  be  termed,  a 
period  of  renewed  vigour  and  activity  for  each  sets  in, 
manifested  in  rapid  growth  and  multiplication  by  divis- 
ion, producing  a  large  number  of  generations,  which 
continues  until  weakening  vital  activities  indicate  the 
periodically  recurring  necessity  for  conjugation.  In  gen- 
eral, among  the  Infusoria  we  find  the  same  process  tak- 
ing place  in  regular  cyclical  order,  with  more  or  less 
complicated  variations  of  the  phenomena  just  outlined 
for  Chilodon.  In  all  of  them  the  aim  of  the  conjugation 
is  the  same,  the  exchange  of  a  certain  amount  of  nuclear 
substance  between  the  two  conjugating  individuals,  and  the 
same  physiological  effect  is  reached,  a  rejuvenescence, 
as  it  were,  of  the  two  organisms  which  manifests  itself 
in  renewed  vigour  of  growth  and  multiplication. 

In  some  of  the  lowest  forms  of  unicellular  life — for 
example,  the  Schizomycetes  or  bacteria  and  their  allies 
— this  necessity  for  conjugation  does  not  appear  to 
exist,  but  for  the  vast  majority  of  forms  this  cyclical 
law  of  development  holds  good.  In  the  Protozoa  no 
division  into  somatic  and  germinal  cells  is  found,  both 
functions  being  united  in  the  one  cell  which  forms  the 
whole  body  of  the  organism.  In  the  Metazoa,  however, 
this  differentiation  has  taken  place ;  the  germinal  cells 
are  set  apart  for  the  preservation  of  the  race;  the  so- 


164  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

matic  cells  carry  on  their  various  functions  for  a  time, 
grow  old,  die,  and  disappear,  certain  of  the  germ  cells 
alone  surviving  in  the  production  of  new  individuals. 
On  the  borderland  between  the  unicellular  and  the  mul- 
ticellular  organisms,  however,  stand  certain  colonial 
forms,  which  show  an  exquisitely  graded  series  of  steps, 
from  the  conditions  of  unicellular  multiplication  to 
those  of  the  multicellular  forms.  Let  us  examine  a 
few  examples  of  these.  Pandorina  morum  is  a  minute 

fresh-water  Alga,  consisting  of  a  colony 
Gradual  differ-  Qf  gixteen  oyoid  cdls  imbedded  in  a 
entiation  of  re-  1-1  /-  •  i,  i-,  , 

ductive  cells          spherical  mass  of  a  jelly-like  substance. 

From  each  of  these  cells  two  long,  hair- 
like  flagellse  extend  out  freely  into  the  water,  and  by 
their  lashing  to  and  fro  the  colony  is  propelled  from 
place  to  place  (Fig.  7,  A).  In  multiplication  by  simple 
division  each  one  of  these  cells  divides  into  a  group 
of  sixteen  daughter  cells,  the  general  gelatinous  inter- 
cellular substance  of  the  parent  colony  dissolves,  the 
sixteen  daughter  colonies  become  free,  and  by  continu- 
ous growth  soon  attain  the  size  of  the  parent  colony 
(Fig.  7,  -#).  After  a  certain  number  of  generations 
produced  in  this  manner,  the  necessity  for  reproduction 
by  conjugation  ensues.  In  this  method  the  sixteen  cells 
of  a  colony  divide,  each  one  usually  into  eight  minute 
cells,  which  are  set  free  in  the  water  by  the  dissolution 
of  the  common  gelatinous  envelope  (Fig.  7,  C).  Each 
one  of  these  swarm  spores,  or  "  zoospores,"  consists  of 
an  oval,  greenish  cell,  the  pointed  end  of  which  is  hya- 
line and  bears  two  long  cilia,  by  means  of  which  the 
spore  swims  through  the  water  (Fig.  7,  K).  These  zoo- 
spores  are  not  all  of  exactly  the  same  size,  but  no  great 
difference  is  noticeable.  If  the  zoospores  from  two 
different  colonies  come  near  each  other,  they  unite  in 
pairs  made  up  of  individuals  of  the  same  or  of  different 


THE   PHYSICAL   BASIS   OF   HEREDITY. 


I65 


sizes  (Fig.  7,  D}.  These  coalesce,  round  up  into  a  spher- 
ical cell  (Fig.  7,  E,  F),  which  soon  develops  an  envelop- 
ing cellulose  wall,  and  passes  as  a  "  zygote  "  into  a  rest- 
ing stage  (Fig.  7,  G}.  In  this  condition  the  organism 


FlG.  7. — Development  of  Pandorina  morum  :  A,  a  swarming  family  ; 
B,  a  similar  family  divided  into  sixteen  daughter  families  ;  C,  a  sex- 
ual family,  the  individual  cells  of  which  are  escaping  from  the  com- 
mon gelatinous  investment;  D,  E,  conjugation  of  pairs  of  swarm 
spores  ;  F,  a  young  zygote  ;  G,a  mature  zygote  ;  H,  transformation 
of  the  contents  of  a  zygote  into  a  large  swarm  cell ;  I,  the  same, 
free  ;  J,  a  young  family  developed  from  the  latter  ;  K,  a  free  swim- 
ming swarm  spore.  (After  Pringsheim.) 


l66  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

may  remain  dormant  for  a  long  time,  thus  tiding  over 
a  period  of  drouth,  the  winter  months,  etc.  After  this 
resting  period,  if  brought  under  suitable  conditions  of 
moisture,  the  outer  wall  of  the  zygote  ruptures,  the  con- 
tents escape  in  the  form  of  a  large  swarm  spore,  which 
swims  about  for  a  time  and  then  divides  into  the  sixteen 
cells  of  a  new  colony  (Fig.  7,  Jf,  /,  J}. 

In  Eudorina  elegans,  a  form  closely  related  to  Pan- 
dorina,  there  is  a  striking  difference  in  the  size  of  the 

conjugating  zoospores.  In  this  form 
Reproduction  in  sixteen  or  thirty-two  cells  are  imbedded 
Eudonna.  .  . 

together  in  a  common  spherical  gelat- 
inous mass.  The  asexual  mode  of  reproduction  is  the 
same  as  in  Pandorina,  just  described,  each  cell  of  a 
colony  being  transformed  by  successive  divisions  into  a 
new  colony  of  sixteen  or  thirty-two  cells  which  becomes 
free  from  the  parent  colony.  The  sexual  mode  presents 
a  difference  in  that  the  colonies  differentiate  into  two 
sorts  termed  male  and  female.  In  the  female  colonies 
the  cells  become  transformed  into  spherical  egg  cells  or 
oospheres  without  further  division.  In  the  male  colo- 
nies, however,  each  cell  divides  into  sixteen  or  thirty- 
two  antherozooids,  minute,  elongated  cells,  each  pro- 
vided with  two  long  cilia  projecting  from  its  anterior  end 
(Fig.  8,  A,  £,  C).  These  remain  slightly  united  together 
in  bundles  and,  escaping  from  the  parent  colony,  swarm 
for  a  time  in  the  water  together.  Coming  in  contact 
with  a  colony  of  oospheres,  they  break  apart,  penetrate 
into  the  gelatinous  envelope,  and  find  their  way  to  the 
egg  cells  (Fig.  8,  £>).  A  single  antherozooid  fuses  with 
each  egg  cell,  and  the  conjugated  pair  form  a  resting 
zygote  around  which  a  cellulose  wall  forms,  and  from 
which,  after  a  certain  period  of  time,  a  new  colony  of 
sixteen  or  thirty-two  cells  develops. 

A  third  stage  in  the  differentiation  of  the  conjugating 


THE   PHYSICAL   BASIS   OF   HEREDITY.  167 

reproductive  cells  is  found  in  Volvox  globator.     This  form 
consists   of  a  hollow  spherical    colony   of    as  many  as 
twenty-two  thousand  cells  placed  in   a 
single  layer  in  a  hyaline  jelly-like  sub- 
stance, and  connected  with  each  other  by  cytoplasmic 
processes.     Each  one  of  the  cells  is  a  somewhat  ovoid 


JB 

FIG.  8. — Eudorina  elegans,  a  female  colony  around  which  antherozooids 
are  swarming  :  A,  cluster  of  antherozooids  still  united  ;  B,  cluster 
of  antherozooids  just  separating  ;  C,  swarming  antherozooids,  some 
of  which  have  already  penetrated  into  the  female  colony  D.  (After 
Goebel.) 

mass  of  green-coloured  protoplasm,  and  bears  two  long 
cilia  upon  its  outer,  pointed,  hyaline  end  which  project 
out  into  the  water  and,  lashing  to  and  fro,  give  to  the 
whole  colony  a  rotary  motion.  At  the  time  of  reproduc- 
tion, certain  cells  of  the  colony  undergo  profound  modi- 
fications. Some  of  them  increase  in  size  enormously, 
having  reserve  food  material  stored  up  in  them,  and 
become  the  egg  cells  or  oospheres.  Other  cells  divide 


1 68  FOOT-NOTES   TO  EVOLUTION. 

into  bundles  of  minute  antherozooids  (sixty-four  to  a 
hundred  and  twenty-eight).  The  remaining  cells  of  the 
colony,  remain  in  a  vegetative  condition,  and  eventu- 
ally die.  In  reproduction,  one  of  the  antherozooids 
fuses  with  one  of  the  oospheres,  a  resting  zygote  is 
formed  from  which  develops  later  a  new  colony.  Thus 
in  the  Volvox  colony  we  meet  with  a  differentiation  into 
somatic  or  vegetative  cells  and  reproductive  cells,  a  dif- 
ferentiation which  persists  through  all  the  multicellular 
plants  and  animals. 

A  much  larger  series  of  forms  might  be  cited  to 
illustrate  the  phenomena  of  multiplication  among  uni- 
cellular organisms,  which  would  show  all  stages  of  gra- 
dation in  the  relative  size  of  the  conjugating  cells  from 
those  in  which  both  are  of  equal  size  and  are  equally 
active,  to  such  forms  as  Volvox,  in  which  a  great  dif- 
ference in  size  exists,  the  larger,  the  oosphere,  being 
non-motile  and  laden  with  food  material,  the  smaller, 
the  antherozooid,  having  the  cytoplasm  reduced  to 
a  very  small  amount  and  being  endowed  with  high 
mobility. 

In  multicellular  organisms  we  meet  with  a  continua- 
tion of  the  same  facts.  The  animal  egg  is  a  single  cell 
laden  with  a  large  amount  of  food  yolk, 

and  made  Up  °f  nucleus  and  cytoplasm 
as  the  living  elements.  For  the  develop- 
ment of  this  egg,  conjugation  with  another  germ  cell, 
derived  from  a  different  individual,  is  necessary.  This 
germ  cell  is  the  spermatozooid,  a  minute  cell  consisting 
of  nucleus  and  centrosome  with  a  small  amount  of  cyto- 
plasm modified  primarily  into  an  organ  of  locomotion, 
the  tail.  A  physiological  division  of  labour  is  here  met 
with  which  admirably  meets  two  diametrically  opposed 
requirements.  The  one  of  these  demands  that  the  con- 
jugating cells  be  highly  motile,  and  consequently  small, 


THE   PHYSICAL   BASIS   OF   HEREDITY.  169 

in  order  that  they  may  be  able  to  come  together  in  the 
water  in  which  they  are  usually  set  free.  The  second 
requires  that  there  be  furnished  a  sufficient  amount  of 
nutritive  material  for  the  nourishment  of  the  embryo 
until  it  arrives  at  a  stage  of  growth  in  which  it  can  shift 
for  itself.  These  two  necessities  have  been  met  by  a 
physiological  division  of  labour  between  the  two  con- 
jugating cells.  The  one,  the  sperm  cell,  has  become 
reduced  in  size  with  a  corresponding  gain  in  motility, 
the  other,  the  egg  cell,  has  had  food  yolk  stored  up  in 
it,  and  its  consequent  increased  size  prevents  any  more 
than  a  very  slight  degree  of  independent  movement,  if 
any.  Different  stages  of  these  modifications  may  be 
met  with  among  unicellular  forms,  as  illustrated  above 
in  Pandorina,  Eudorina,  and  Volvox,  to  which  might  be 
added  many  others.  In  Pandorina  the  conjugating  cells 
are  of  nearly  equal  size,  in  Eudorina  an  intermediate 
condition  is  reached,  while  in  Volvox  the  egg  and  sperm 
cells  are  sharply  differentiated  in  size  and  motility. 
Again,  in  the  first  two  and  their  allies  alloi  the  cells  are 
at  first  vegetative  and  afterward  reproductive,  while  in 
Volvox  the  definite  separation  into  vegetative  or 
somatic,  and  reproductive  or  germinal  cells  makes  its 
appearance. 

We  arrive  then  at  the  conclusion,  from  the  considera- 
tion of  these  and  many  other  lines  of  evidence,  that  the 
germ  cells  were  primitively  exactly  alike, 
Fundamental  an(J  that  tfae  differences  between  them 

identity  of  the  , 

m  cells  have  arisen  in  the  process  of  differentia- 

tion along  two  separate  lines.  Further- 
more, it  is  clear  that  the  differences  between  the  two 
sexes,  which  become  strongly  characterized  in  the  higher 
vertebrates,  are  all  of  a  purely  secondary  nature. 

In  their  early  development  the  germ  cells  are  indis- 
tinguishable from  each  other,  and  both  pass  through 


170  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

certain  stages  preliminary  to  their  union,  which  are 
essentially  alike.  The  animal  egg  is  a  large,  more  or 

less  spherical  cell,  enveloped  usually  by 

The  egg  cell.  /      ' 

certain  membranes,  containing  a   large 

nucleus  and  cytoplasm.  The  vast  bulk  of  the  egg 
cell,  however,  is  made  up  of  inert  food  material  in  the 
form  of  yolk  granules,  which  are  stored  up  in  it  as 
nourishment  for  the  developing  embryo.  The  nucleus, 
or  germinal  vesicle,  is  large,  and  contains  a  network  of 
chromatin  together  with  one  or  more  conspicuous  nucle- 
oli.  There  are  three  periods  usually  recognised  in  the 
development  of  the  egg  cell,  viz. :  i.  The  period  of 
multiplication ;  2,  the  period  of  growth ;  and,  3,  the 
period  of  maturation.  The  first  period  is  characterized 
by  a  continued  series  of  divisions  of  the  primitive  repro- 
ductive cell  and  its  descendants,  which  produces  a  large 
number  of  "ovogonia."  Succeeding  this  is  a  period  of 
growth  in  which  the  ovogonia  increase  greatly  in  size, 
mainly  through  the  production  and  storing  up  of  food 
yolk.  At  the  close  of  this  period  the  germ  cell,  now 
termed  a  "primary  ovocyte,"  enters  upon  the  matura- 
tion period,  in  which  it  undergoes  two  divisions  in  rapid 

succession,  by  means  of  which  two  minute 
Maturation.  ,,  ,.  .... 

cells,  the  polar  bodies,  are  cut  off  from 

the  egg.  Through  these  two  divisions  the  number  of 
chromosomes  in  the  egg  nucleus  is  reduced  to  one  half 
that  which  is  found  in  the  other  cells  of  the  body.  The 
first  polar  body,  also  usually  divides,  and  thus,  at  the 
close  of  the  period  of  maturation,  four  cells  result,  one 
large  mature  egg  cell,  ready  for  the  fertilization  which 
initiates  the  development  of  the  embryo,  and  three 
minute  polar  bodies,  which  are  to  be  regarded  simply  as 
rudimentary  eggs.  The  nuclei  of  these  four  cells  are 
exactly  alike  in  that  they  all  contain  the  same  number 
of  chromosomes — i.  e.,  one  half  the  number  in  the  somatic 


THE    PHYSICAL   BASIS   OF    HEREDITY. 


171 


cells  of  the  individual.     The  difference  in   size  is  due 
simply  to  the  concentration  of  the  food  yolk  and  most 
of  the  cytoplasm  in  one  of  the  cells,  the  other  three  de- 
generating, being  sacrificed  to  the  production  of  an  egg 
cell  with  the  largest  possible  supply  of  nutritive  sub- 
stance in  it. 

Turning  to  the  development  of  the  sperm  cell  we  find 
an  exactly  parallel  series  of  stages,  the  end  results,  how- 
ever, differing  much  in  size.    The  mature 
The  sperm  cell.  .  .... 

spermatozoon  is  an  exceedingly  minute 

cell,  consisting  typically  of  a  cylindrical  or  conical 
"  head "  containing  a  nucleus,  a  short  cytoplasmic 
"middle  piece,"  and  a  long  vibratile  "tail,"  an  organ 
of  locomotion  differentiated  out  of  the  cytoplasm  of  the 
cell  from  which  the  spermatozoon  is  derived.  The 
stages  of  multiplication,  growth,  and  maturation  are 
passed  through  in  the  development  of  the  spermatozoon 
in  the  same  order  as  in  the  egg  development,  save  that 
the  period  of  growth  does  not  include  the  storage  of 
food  yolk  in  the  primary  spermatocyte,  and  the  two  divis- 
ions of  the  maturation  stages  are  equal  ones,  resulting 
in  the  production  of  four  cells  of  the  same  size,  each  of 
which  develops  into  a  complete  spermatozoon.  The 
accompanying  diagrams  of  Fig.  9,  taken  from  Boveri, 
illustrate  clearly  the  homologies  existing  between  the 
life  histories  of  the  two  sorts  of  germ  cells.  The  earlier 
stages  of  ovogonia  and  spermatogonia  are  indistinguish- 
able from  each  other;  later  in  the  period  of  growth  the 
increase  in  the  size  of  the  ovocyte  marks  it  off  from  the 
minute  spermatocyte,  but  this  distinction  is  merely  one 
due  to  non-living  food  material,  and  in  no  wise  affects 
the  fundamental  identity  of  the  two.  In  the  maturation 
period  the  number  of  chromosomes  in  the  nuclei  of  both 
egg  and  sperm  is  reduced  one  half — on  the  one  hand,  the 
ripe  egg  cell  and  three  rudimentary  egg  cells  (the  polar 


172 


FOOT-NOTES  TO  EVOLUTION. 


bodies)  being  formed  ;  on  the  other,  four  equal  "  sperma- 
tids"    are  produced,  which   develop   into   four  mature 


spermatozoa.     The  contrast  in  size  which  exists  between 
the   two   mature   reproductive   cells    is   enormous,  the 


THE   PHYSICAL   BASIS   OF   HEREDITY.  173 

spermatozoon  in  some  cases  containing  less  than  t 0  0*0  6ir 
(Wilson),  and  in  extreme  cases  less  than  T^nn^J-oouo 
(Hertwig)  of  the  volume  of  the  egg  cell. 

A  discussion  of  the  method  by  which  the  reduction 
of  the  chromosomes  in  the  germ  nuclei  is  brought  about 
may  profitably  be  deferred  until  the  es- 
Fertihzation.  sential  features  of  fertilization  have  been 
examined.  The  phenomena  of  the  fusion  of  egg  and 
sperm  can  best  be  studied  in  some  such  form  as  the  sea 
urchin,  in  which  the  egg  is  very  small  and,  in  some  spe- 
cies, quite  transparent.  As  fertilization  takes  place  free 
in  the  sea  water,  the  germinal  cells  being  cast  out  from 
the  parents,  it  is  possible  to  collect  the  eggs  and  sperm 
separately  from  mature  individuals  and  bring  them  to- 
gether in  small  dishes  of  sea  water,  and  at  such  times 
as  may  suit  one's  convenience.  Then  in  the  living  egg 
much  of  the  process  may  be  followed  under  the  micro- 
scope, and  properly  prepared  sections  of  the  eggs  killed 
by  reagents  at  the  various  stages  enable  conclusions  to 
be  drawn  as  to  matters  of  minute  detail.  Fig.  10,  A  to 
f,  presents  a  series  of  diagrams,  taken  from  Boveri,  illus- 
trating the  principal  facts  in  the  process  of  fertiliza- 
tion. In  Fig.  10,  A,  the  egg  is  represented  with  its 
clear  nucleus  in  the  centre,  surrounded  by  the  egg  mem- 
brane. Clustered  around  the  periphery  are  a  number  of 
spermatozoa  endeavouring  to  find  their  way  into  the 
substance  of  the  egg.  On  the  right-hand  side  in  the 
figure  one  has  penetrated  the  membrane  and  is  shown 
passing  into  the  egg  cytoplasm,  which  puts  forth  a 
small  conical  prominence  to  meet  it.  As  soon  as  the 
head  of  one  sperm  enters  the  egg  cytoplasm  a  new 
membrane  is  formed  around  the  egg  which  effectually 
prevents  the  entrance  of  any  others.  The  head  and 
middle  piece  penetrate  into  the  egg,  the  tail  usually  re- 
maining imbedded  in  the  membrane  where  it  soon  de- 


FIG.  IO.  —  Diagrams  illustrating  the  fertilization  of  the  egg. 

A,  egg  surrounded  by  spermatozoa  ;  on  the  right,  one  has  just  penetrated  the  eg 
membranes  and  is  entering  the  egg  cytoplasm  •  egg  nucleus  in  the  centre.  B,  eg 
nucleus  with  chromatin  reticulum  on  left  ;  on  right,  the  sperm  nucleus  preceded  b 


its  centrosome  and  attrac 


spher 


right 
C,  egg  nucle 


sperm  nuceus  pre 
he  left,  sperm  nucleus  o 


the  right  of  the  centre  of  the  egg  ;  sta^e  immediately  preceding  the  division  of  th 
centrosome.  D,  the  centrosome  has  divided,  the  two  attraction  spheres  separate  t 
form  the  first  cleavage  spindle  ;  the  chromosomes  of  the  egg  and  sperm  nuclei  clearly 
visible  and  indistinguishable  (in  the  figure  the  ecg  chromosomes  are  black,  the  sperm 
chromosomes  shaded).  E,  the  first  cleavage  spindle,  with  splitting  of  chromosomes. 
F,  completion  of  first  cleavage  ;  two-celled  stage,  each  nucleus  contains  four  chromo- 
somes— two  from  the  egg  and  two  from  the  sperm.  (After  Boveri.) 

174 


THE   PHYSICAL   BASIS   OF   HEREDITY.  175 

generates.  A  few  moments  after  the  sperm  has  entered 
a  system  of  radiations  appears  around  the  middle  piece, 
which  develops  into  an  aster  surrounding  the  centrosome 
of  the  sperm  (Fig.  10,  £}.  The  sperm  nucleus  swells 
up  and  rapidly  increases  in  size,  its  chromatin  changing 
from  the.  compact  condition  in  which  it  is  arranged 
in  the  sperm  head  to  a  reticulate  condition  (Fig.  10,  C). 
The  chromatin  reticulum  of  the  egg  nucleus  becomes 
also  more  clearly  visible.  Sperm  aster  and  sperm  nu- 
cleus now  move  in  toward  the  egg  nucleus,  the  aster 
usually  preceding.  As  the  nuclei  approach  the  sperm 
nucleus  increases  still  more  in  size  until  it  becomes  in- 
distinguishable from  the  egg  nucleus  (Fig.  10,  C).  The 
chromatin  network  of  each  now  breaks  up  into  a  number 
of  chromosomes,  one  half  of  the  number  found  in  the 
somatic  cells,  and  the  nuclei  come  into  contact,  fusing 
together  in  some  cases.  In  the  sea  urchin,  Echinus,  the 
number  of  chromosomes  is  eighteen,  nine  would  there- 
fore be  found  in  the  germ  nuclei ;  for  the  sake  of  clear- 
ness and  simplicity  but  two  are  represented  in  the  dia- 
gram, those  of  the  sperm  nucleus  being  slightly  shaded 
while  those  of  the  egg  nucleus  are  black.  The  centro- 
some divides  together  with  its  aster 
(Fig.  10,  D),  the  two  daughter  centro- 
somes  move  apart  to  opposite  poles  of  the  egg,  and  the 
typical  amphaster  of  cell  division  is  formed  (Fig.  10,  £), 
the  nuclear  membranes  disappearing  and  the  chromo- 
somes being  drawn  together  into  the  equatorial  plate 
where  each  splits  longitudinally.  The  halves  are  drawn 
by  the  mantle  fibrils  toward  the  opposite  poles  and  the 
egg  divides  transversely  into  two  cells  (Fig.  10,  f).  This 
process  of  division  is  repeated  continuously  in  each  of 
the  resulting  generations  of  cells,  and  from  the  mass 
of  cells  thus  formed  develops  the  new  organism.  Each 
cell  in  the  two-celled  stage  has  received  half  of  its 
13 


176  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

chromosomes  from  the  egg  nucleus  and  half  from  the 
sperm,  thus  containing  equal  amounts  from  each  par- 
ent. The  centrosome,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  is  to  be 
regarded  as  the  dynamic  centre  of  the  cell  division, 
comes  from  the  spermatozoon  alone;  the  egg,  on  the 
other  hand,  furnishes  the  yolk  and  practically  all  of  the 
cytoplasm. 

After  this  preliminary  outline  of  the  facts  of  fertiliza- 
tion we  are  in  a  better  position  to  understand  the  details 

of  a  process  which  occurs  in  the  develop- 
The  reduction  ment  Qf  both  an(J  m  cdj  name_ 

of  the  chromo-  ,  ,        .  r     .          , 

somes  ly,  the  reduction  of  the  chromosomes. 

The  necessity  for  such  a  reduction  is 
evident  from  a  moment's  reflection.  We  have  seen  that 
the  number  of  chromosomes  in  the  nucleus  is  a  con- 
stant and  typical  one  for  each  animal  and  plant  species 
so  far  as  known.  As  fertilization  consists  in  the  union 
of  two  cells  into  one,  from  which  the  young  organism 
develops,  it  is  plain  that,  were  there  no  reduction, 
the  number  of  chromosomes  would  be  doubled  in  each 
succeeding  generation.  However  simple  this  necessity 
for  reduction  may  appear,  the  minutiae  of  the  processes 
through  which  it  is  brought  about,  and  the  theoretical 
significance  of  these  facts,  form  the  most  involved  prob- 
lem of  biology  to-day.  In  a  few  forms,  especially  among 
the  lower  Crustacea,  the  facts  of  the  reduction  are  clear 
and  relatively  simple  ;  in  other  forms  they  thus  far  stand 
in  direct  contradiction,  and,  for  the  present,  a  compre- 
hensive explanation  applicable  to  all  forms  must  be  left 
to  further  investigation. 

The  significance  of  reduction  turns  upon  the  concep- 
tion of  a  definite  organization  and  individuality  in  the 
chromosomes  and  the  assumption  that  they  represent 
the  physical  basis  of  heredity — i.  e.,  that  they  influence 
and  determine  into  what  the  fertilized  egg  shall  develop. 


THE    PHYSICAL   BASIS   OF    HEREDITY.  ij-j 

Fifteen  years  ago  Wilhelm  Roux  showed  with  convincing 
clearness  that  the  complicated  facts  of  nuclear  division, 
the  careful  longitudinal  halving  of  the  chromatin  thread 
and  its  equal  distribution  between  the 
Theories  as  to  two  daughter  cells,  can  only  be  explained 
Structure  and  sig-  Qn  thg  bagis  that  the  chromosomes  pos. 
mncance  of  the 

chromosomes.  sess  different  structure  in  different  parts 
of  their  extent,  and  that  these  structures, 
representing  tendencies  in  development,  are  distributed 
in  definite  ways  to  the  daughter  cells.  Were  this  not 
the  case  a  simple  direct  mass  division  of  nucleus  and 
cytoplasm  instead  of  the  complicated  process  of  Karyo- 
kinesis  with  its  consequent  much  greater  expenditure  of 
energy  would  serve  all  purposes. 

The  theories  of  Weismann  are  all  based  upon  an  ex- 
tension of  Roux's  ideas.  Briefly,  he  assumes  a  definite 
architecture  of  the  chromatin  filament,  each  nuclear  rod 
or  idant  being  composed  of  a  number  of  "  ancestral 
germ  plasms  or  ids,  the  vital  units  of  the  third  order. 
Each  id  in  the  germ  plasm  is  built  up  of  thousands  or 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  determinants,  the  vital  units 
of  the  second  order,  which  in  turn  are  composed  of 
the  actual  bearers  of  vitality  or  biophors,  the  ultimate 
vital  units.  The  biophors  are  of  various  kinds,  and 
each  kind  corresponds  to  a  different  part  of  a  cell ; 
they  are  therefore  the  bearers  of  the  characters  or 
qualities  of  cells.  Various  but  perfectly  definite  num- 
bers and  combinations  of  these  form  the  determi- 
nants, each  of  which  is  the  primary  constituent  of  a  par- 
ticular cell,  or  of  a  small  or  even  large  group  of  cells — 
e.  g.,  blood  corpuscles." 

"These  determinants  control  the  cell  by  breaking  up 
into  biophors,  which  migrate  into  the  cell  body  through 
the  pores  of  the  nuclear  membrane,  multiply  there,  ar- 
range themselves  according  to  the  forces  within  them, 


178  FOOT-NOTES  TO   EVOLUTION. 

and  determine  the  histological  structure  of  the  cell. 
But  they  only  do  so  after  a  certain  definitely  prescribed 
period  of  development,  during  which  they  reach  the  cell 
which  they  have  to  control."  (Weismann,  The  Germ 
Plasm,  pp.  75,  76.) 

Cell  division,  then,  is  a  process  of  qualitative  analysis 
through  which  the  determinants,  in  virtue  of  possessing 

a  certain  definite  location  in  the  archi- 
The  ultimate  tecture  of  the  chromosome,  are  dis- 
vital  units 

tributed  ultimately  to   that   portion  of 

the  body  which  they  are  to  direct.  Weismann  has  devel- 
oped this  theory  to  a  most  elaborate  degree  of  compli- 
cation in  explaining  the  various  phenomena  of  heredity 
— to  a  degree,  it  need  hardly  be  remarked,  which  passes 
far  beyond  our  present  knowledge  of  the  facts  of  cytol- 
ogy. Just  as  the  chemist  and  physicist,  however,  are 
forced  to  the  assumption  of  the  existence  of  ultimate 
atoms  and  molecules  to  explain  the  phenomena  of  non- 
living matter,  so  the  biologist  must  in  some  form  or 
other  assume  the  reality  of  ultimate  self-propagating 
vital  units,  be  they  called  "biophors"  with  Weismann, 
"  micellse "  with  Nsegeli,  "pangenes"  with  De  Vries, 
"  plasomes  "  with  Wiesner,  or  "  physiological  units  "  with 
Herbert  Spencer 

In  the  light  of  this  probable  individuality  and  mor- 
phological organization  of  the  chromosomes  the  method 

of  their  reduction  in  number,  preparatory 
Significance  of  tQ  the  fusion  Qf  thfi  m  cell  becomes 
reduction.  . 

of   the  greatest    significance ;    to   those 

who  may  deny  this  individuality  and  definite  architec- 
ture, the  phenomena  can  have  no  great  importance  save 
as  concerns  a  general  mass  reduction  in  the  amount  of 
the  chromatin  present  in  the  germ  nuclei.  It  may  be 
assumed  as  true,  in  the  majority  of  cases  now  accu- 
rately known,  that  the  reduction  takes  place  somewhere 


THE   PHYSICAL   BASIS   OF    HEREDITY. 


179 


in  or  near  the  last  two  divisions  of  the  germ  cells  pre- 
vious to  their  fusion — that  is,  in  the  egg — in  the  di- 
visions forming  the  polar  bodies,  and  in  the  sperm,  in 
the  last  two  divisions  of  the  spermatocyte  which  pro- 
duce the  four  spermatids  out  of  which  develop  as  many 
mature  spermatozoa.  The  phenomena  are  exactly  homol- 
ogous in  both  cases,  as  has  already  been  pointed  out, 
differing  only  in  the  minor  details  which  do  not  affect 
the  end  result.  Two  peculiar  features  mark  these  di- 
visions off  from  all  the  others  which  precede  and  follow 
them.  One  of  these  is  the  absence  of  an  intermediate 
resting  stage  between  them,  the  second  division  follow- 
ing immediately  upon  the  first  without  the  reconstitu- 
tion  of  the  chromosomes  into  the  skein  stages.  The 
second  peculiarity  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  chromatin 
masses  (not  the  individual  chromosomes)  appear  in  one 
half  the  typical  number  of  the  chromosomes  in  the  first 
division,  and  are  usually  arranged  in  "  tetrads,"  or 
groups  of  four  rounded,  deeply  staining  bodies  connected 
by  linin  fibres.  These  tetrads  are  always  one  half  the 
number  of  the  original  rod  or  thread-like  chromosomes. 
Thus  in  Fig.  n,  A  represents  a  sperma- 
^eduction  in  togonium  nucleus  of  Ascaris  with  the 
Ascans. 

four  chromosomes,  showing  the  longi- 
tudinal splitting  preparatory  to  division.  Fig.  n,  JB,  rep- 
resents an  early  spindle  stage  in  the  division  of  the 
primary  spermatocyte,  in  which  not  four  band-like 
chromosomes,  but  two  tetrads,  or  chromatin  groups  of 
four  rounded  bodies  are  found.  Fig.  n,  C  to  F,  show 
clearly  the  further  steps  in  the  spermatogenesis.  In  Fig. 
ii,  C,  the  tetrads  are  grouped  in  the  equatorial  plate, 
and  in  Fig.  n,  D,  in  the  closing  stages  of  the  first  divi- 
sion into  two  spermatocytes,  each  tetrad  has  divided  into 
two  "dyads"  which  are  drawn  to  the  poles,  and  the 
division  of  the  cell  body  follows.  Without  an  interven- 


i8o 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


ing  resting  stage  each  spermatocyte  now  divided  again, 
as  in  Fig.  u,  E  and  F,  each  dyad  now  being  separated 
into  halves,  so  that  in  the  spermatids  of  Fig.  n,  F,  but 


FlG.  II. — Reduction  of  chromosomes  in  the  spermatogenesis  of  Ascaris 
megalocepkala,  var.  bivalens  :  A,  nucleus  of  a  spermatogonium  ;  the 
typical  number  of  chromosomes  (four)  is  seen,  each  split  longitu- 
dinally preparatory  to  the  next  division.  B,  young  spindle  stage  of 
primary  spermatocyte  ;  two  tetrads  are  present,  each  formed  hy  the 
double  longitudinal  splitting  of  a  chromatin  thread.  C,  the  tetrads 
in  the  equatorial  stage  of  the  division.  D,  separation  of  dyads. 
E,  the  dyads  in  the  succeeding  division  of  the  secondary  spermato- 
cyte. F.  completion  of  the  division  of  the  same  ;  each  cell  (sperma- 
tid)  contains  the  reduced  number  of  chromosomes  (two).  (After 
Brauer.) 

two  chromatin  masses  are  present.  Thus  the  tetrads  of 
the  primary  spermatocyte  are  divided  up  among  the  four 
spermatids,  so  that  each  of  the  latter  receives  one  fourth 


THE   PHYSICAL   BASIS   OF   HEREDITY.  iSl 

of  each  tetrad.  Since  later  stages  show  that  the  two 
chromatin  masses  in  each  spermatid  of  Fig.  n,  F,  repre- 
sents two  chromosomes,  we  see  that  the  number  of  chro- 
mosomes has  been  reduced  from  the  four  in  Fig.  n,  A,  to 
two  in  Fig.  1 1,  F.  Manifestly  the  key  to  the  explanation 
lies  in  the  relations  which  exist  between  the  four  chro- 
mosomes of  Fig.  n,  A,  and  the  tetrads  of  Fig.  n,  B. 
The  two  divisions  consist  merely  in  the  distribution  of 
the  already  separated  parts  of  the  tetrads ;  in  the  rear- 
rangement of  the  four  chromosomes  into  the  two  tetrads 
lies  the  possibility  of  the  reduction  which  is  carried  out 
by  the  following  divisions.  The  problem  thus  resolves 
itself  into  the  question,  What  is  the  nature  of  each  tetrad? 
Is  it  made  up  of  a  single  chromosome,  of  two,  of  four, 
or  have  the  constituent  parts  of  the  original  four  chro- 
mosomes become  so  completely  rearranged  and  redis- 
tributed that  their  identity  as  such  is  completely  lost  ? 

Turning  for  a  moment  to  the  lower  Crustacea,  we  find 
among  the  Copepods  forms  admirably  suited   for   the 

careful  following  out  of  the  changes 
Reduction  in  taking  piace  in  the  rearrangement  of 
Crustacea. 

the  chromosomes  into  the  tetrads.     To 

Ruckert  we  owe  the  clearest  account  of  the  process  as 
exhibited  in  the  egg  maturation  of  Cyclops.  Here  the 
normal  number  is  22,  or  perhaps  24,  the  minute  size 
rendering  counting  difficult.  In  Fig.  12,  A  to  F,  taken 
from  Ruckert,  give  the  essential  points  of  the  forma- 
tion of  the  tetrads  and  their  following  divisions,  not 
all  the  chromosomes  being  represented.  In  Fig.  12,  A, 
the  chromatin  filament  has  broken  up  into  one  half  the 
usual  number  of  segments  (chromosomes),  and  each 
shows  the  precocious  longitudinal  splitting.  These 
segments  shorten  up  into  the  double  rods  of  Fig.  12,  £, 
which  in  Fig.  12,  C,  are  being  arranged  in  the  developing 
spindle.  A  comparison  of  these  three  figures  will  show 


FIG.  12. — Maturation  of  the  egg  of  Cyclops  (the  full  number  of  chromo- 
somes is  not  shown) :  A,  germinal  vesicle  with  the  chromosomes 
already  split  longitudinally.  B,  the  chromatin  masses  shortened, 
with  indication  of  transverse  division  to  form  the  tetrads.  C,  the 
young  tetrads  arranging  themselves  on  the  first  polar-body  spindle. 
D,  tetrads  in  first  polar-body  spindle.  E,  separation  of  the  dyads 
in  the  same.  F,  position  of  the  dyads  in  second  polar-body  spindle  ; 
the  first  polar  body  is  shown  above  the  margin  of  the  egg.  (After 
Ruckert.) 
182 


THE   PHYSICAL   BASIS   OF   HEREDITY.  ^3 

clearly  that  each  chromatin  segment  has  divided  both 
longitudinally  and  transversely,  its  parts  shortening  and 
arranging  themselves  in  the  tetrad  formation  of  Fig.  12, 
D.  The  first  division  following  separates  the  tetrad 
along  the  longitudinal  plane  of  its  former  splitting  (Fig. 
12,  £),  and  the  second  division  along  the  transverse 
plane  (Fig.  12,  F}. 

In  Cyclops  then  the  tetrads  are  formed  by  the  chro- 
matin thread  of  the  resting  nucleus  breaking  up  into  one 
half  the  usual  number  of  segments,  and  each  of  these  in 
turn  dividing  longitudinally  and  transversely.  A  tetrad 
here  is  made  up  of  two  chromosomes  slightly  united  end 
to  end  and  split  longitudinally.  Thus  \iabcdef n  rep- 
resent the  unsegmented  filament  of  the  resting  nucleus, 
a-b-c-d-e-f  would  show  its  breaking  up  into  the  normal 
number  of  chromosomes  which  split  lengthwise,  forming 

a    b    c    d   e  f 

— ,  -r,  — ,  -j,  — ,  ^r  in  the  equatorial  plate.     In  the  Cyclops 

nucleus  of  Fig.  A  the  filament  has  separated  into  the 
segments  ab-cd-ef  -  -  -  n,  each  of  which  has  split  longi- 
tudinally into  — ,  -3,  -~.j  etc.,  and  its  transverse  division, 
subsequently  becoming  more  apparent,  gives  to  each 

tetrad  the  composition  — — ,  —  — ,  —  K,  etc.      By  the  first 

a\b  c\d  e\f 

division,  in  the  longitudinal  plane,  each  daughter  cell 
receives  a  half  of  each  chromosome  ;  in  the  second, 
however,  in  the  vertical  plane,  this  is  not  the  case,  as 
can  be  readily  seen.  This  is  clearly  a  qualitative  di- 
vision, and  the  daughter  cells  receive  unlike  chromo- 
somes. This  forms  the  "  reducing  division  "  in  Weis- 
mann's  sense,  and  as  such  is  a  most  beautiful  demon- 
stration of  his  postulated  reduction  of  the  ancestral 
plasm. 

In  Ascaris,   however,   the  evidence  is  just  as  clear 


1 84  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

that  no  reducing  division  in  Weismann's  sense  takes 
place,  though  the  actual  number  of  the  chromosomes  is 
also  reduced. 

Boveri  has  shown  for  the  egg  and  Brauer  for  the 
sperm  that  the  tetrads  arise  by  a  double,  longitudinal 
splitting  of  the  chromatin  filament  which  later  breaks 
into  two  segments.  Thus  abed  would  again  represent 
the  unsegmented  filament,  a-b-c-d  the  individual  chromo- 
somes, and— ,  — ,  — ,  —their  splitting  longitudinally  in  or- 
a  b  c  d 

dinary  division.  In  the  maturation  of  the  egg  and  in 
spermatogenesis,  however,  the  thread  segments  into  ab, 


cd,  and  splits  twice  longitudinally  into 


ab  cd 
aff  cd 


cd   n. 

— >,  the 
cd 


ab 

two  tetrads  of  B  in  Fig.  u.  The  reduction  of  chromatin 
here  is  only  a  reduction  in  mass  and  not  a  qualitative 
one,  in  Weismann's  sense,  as  in  the  Crustacea  and  in- 
sects. In  Ascaris  the  actual  reduction  in  number  of 
chromosomes  takes  place  in  the  nucleus  previous  to  the 
maturation  divisions  of  the  ovocyte  and  spermatocyte 
respectively.  In  Cyclops  the  formation  of  the  tetrads  is 
merely  a  pseudo-reduction,  the  actual  reduction  taking 
place  in  the  second  division  which  gives  rise  to  the  ma- 
ture egg  on  the  one  hand,  or  to  the  spermatids,  which 
develop  into  the  spermatozoa,  on  the  other. 

One  fundamental  fact  is  clear  in  these  divergent 
accounts.  The  number  of  the  chromosomes  is  reduced 
in  both  sorts  of  the  germinal  cells  as  a  preliminary  to 
their  union.  Whether  there  is  likewise  a  qualitative  dis- 
tribution of  the  chromatin  elements  remains  for  future 
investigation  to  decide. 

From  the  facts  of  ordinary  cell  division  we  have  seen 
the  probability  of  the  hypothesis  that  the  chromatin  of 
the  nucleus  is  to  be  regarded  as  the  bearer  of  hereditary 
qualities  in  the  cell.  The  phenomena  of  fertilization 


THE   PHYSICAL   BASIS   OF    HEREDITY.  185 

greatly  increase  this  probability.  The  offspring  resem- 
bles both  of  its  parents,  and  the  paternal  tendencies 
can  be  conveyed  in  the  minute  sperma- 
The  chromatin  tozoan  head  alone,  which  is  constituted 
as  the  bearer  of  almost  entirely  of  chromatin.  The  scrup- 
hereditary  mflu-  . 

ences  ulous   exactitude   with   which,    in    both 

germ  cells,  the  chromosomes  are  reduced 
to  one  half  the  normal  number  preparatory  to  the  union 
of  the  pronuclei  in  fertilization,  and  the  distribution  of 
the  paternal  and  maternal  chromatin 
equally  to  the  resulting  cells  of  cleav- 
age, lend  added  weight  to  the  theory.  It 
remained  for  the  genius  of  Boveri  by  a  brilliant  experi- 
ment to  raise  this  hypothesis  to  the  plane  of  almost  ab- 
solute certainty.  The  crucial  test  of  the  theory  would 
be  to  remove  the  nucleus  from  one  cell 

Direct  ex  pen-  and  to  substitute  it  in  the  place  of  the 
mental  evidence. 

nucleus  of  another.     If  the  nucleus  and 

cytoplasm  thus  brought  into  union  are  so  constituted 
that  they  can  exist  together,  then  one  of  three  things 
will  happen.  Either  the  qualities  of  the  cell  from  which 
the  nucleus  was  taken  will  develop,  or  those  of  the 
cytoplasm,  or  those  formed  by  the  union  of  both  nucleus 
and  cytoplasm. 

In  this  first  case  nuclear  control  will  be  demon- 
strated ;  in  the  second,  cytoplasmic ;  and  in  the  third, 
an  interaction  of  both  nucleus  and  cytoplasm  will  deter- 
mine the  activities  of  the  cell. 

Such  an  experiment  was  first  tried  by  Rauber  in  en- 
deavouring to  remove  the  nucleus  of  the  fertilized  frog's 
egg,  and  to  substitute  for  it  the  nucleus  from  a  toad's 
egg  in  the  same  stage  of  development.  If  the  nucleus 
contains  the  hereditary  influences,  then  a  toad  must 
develop  from  the  union  of  frog's  cytoplasm  and  toad 
nucleus.  The  profound  disturbances  set  up  in  the 


1 86  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

operation,  however,  effectively  precluded  any  success, 
and  the  eggs  did  not  develop. 

Boveri  selected  for  his  experiments  the  eggs  of  two 
different  species  of  sea  urchins,  Echinus  microtuberculatus 
and  Sphxrechinus  granularis,  both  found  in  abundance  at 
Naples.  He  found  that,  if  the  minute  eggs  of  either  of 
these  were  shaken  vigorously  in  a  test  tube,  in  a  small 
amount  of  sea-water,  for  a  few  minutes,  they  would 
break  up  into  variously  sized  fragments,  some  of  which 
contained  nuclei  while  others  did  not.  These  fragments 
could  be  fertilized,  and  development  would  proceed  reg- 
ularly, the  dwarf  larvae  resulting  resembling  in  all  par- 
ticulars the  normal  larvae,  save  for  a  small  percentage 
of  deformation  caused  by  the  shaking.  This  develop- 
ment took  place  in  the  non-nucleate  fragments  as  well  as 
in  those  which  contained  nuclei,  the  spermatozoa  pene- 
trating into  both  with  equal  readiness.  The  larval 
forms  of  the  two  genera  Echinus  and  Shpharechinus  are 
so  sharply  defined  that  they  can  be  recognised  at  the 
end  of  trie  second  or  third  day's  development  with  un- 
failing accuracy.  Fig.  13,  C  and  Z>,  illustrate  in  front 
and  side  view  a  normal  larva  of  Sphcer  echinus,  Fig.  13, 
A  and  B,  the  same  of  Echinus.  The  general  contour 
and  shape  of  the  larva,  and  more  especially  the  widely 
differing  calcareous  skeletons  of  the  two  forms,  render 
their  ready  distinction  a  very  easy  matter,  and  a  closer 
analysis  will  reveal  a  large  number  of  minor  points  of 
difference.  . 

After  determining  these  facts,  Boveri's  next  step  was 
to  cross-fertilize  the  eggs  of  Spharechinus  with  sperm 
from  Echinus.  In  a  small  percentage  of  cases  this  suc- 
ceeded, and  the  resulting  larvae  were  uniformly  of  a 
type  as  shown  in  Fig.  14,  A  and  B,  in  front  and  side 
view — a  form  which  stands  midway  between  the  nor- 
mal larvae  of  the  parents,  and  combines  the  character- 


FIG.  13. — A,  normal  larva  of  Echinus  microtuberculatus ;  front  view. 
B,  the  same  ;  side  view.  C,  Normal  larva  of  Sphcerechinus  granu- 
laris  ;  front  view.  D,  the  same  ;  side  view.  (After  Boveri.) 

187 


1 88  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

istics  of  both.  Thus  the  hybrid  presents  a  new  type, 
which  was  found  to  be  likewise  constant,  and  in  no 
case  did  it  approach  the  likeness  of  either  the  Echinus 
or  Sphczrechinus  type,  so  as  to  be  mistaken  for  them. 
Thus  were  established  four  preliminary  essentials  to 
the  experiment,  viz. : 

1.  The  constancy  of  the  normal  Echinus  larval  type. 

2.  The  constancy  of  the  normal  Sphczrechinus  larval 
type. 

3.  The  constancy  of  the  new  hybrid  type  between 
Echinus  $  and  Sphczrechinus  $  . 

4.  The   possibility  of   securing  non-nucleated  frag- 
ments of   Sphczrechinus   eggs   by   shaking,   which   were 
capable  of   fertilization,  and  from  which   dwarf  larvae 
might  be  reared. 

The  crucial  point  in  the  experiment,  as  may  have 
been  already  anticipated,  was  to  cross-fertilize  non-nu- 
cleated fragments  of  Sphczrechinus  eggs  with  Echinus 
sperm.  The  type  of  larva  resulting  would  decide  the 
point  in  question.  Here  we  may  have  a  nucleus  from 
one  species  introduced  into  the  non-nucleated  cyto- 
plasm of  another  species  by  a  perfectly  normal  process 
— i.  e.,  by  the  penetration  of  the  spermatozoan  into  the 
egg.  If  the  resulting  larva  be  of  the  hybrid  type,  as 
shown  in  Fig.  14,  A  and  B,  then  nucleus  and  cytoplasm 
both  unite  in  determining  the  hereditary  characteristics  ; 
if  the  pure  Sphczrechinus  type  of  Fig.  13,  Cand  D,  results, 
then  the  cytoplasm  alone  bears  these  influences ;  while, 
finally,  if  the  type  be  that  of  Fig.  13,  A  and  B,  to  the 
spermatozoan  nucleus  alone  must  be  ascribed  the  heredi- 
tary qualities.  The  larvae  secured  by  Boveri  were  of 
the  pure  Echimis  or  paternal  type,  as  is  well  shown  in 
Fig.  14,  C  and  D.  A  comparison  of  these  figures  with 
Fig.  13,  A  and  B,  show  unmistakably  that  this  is  the 
case.  No  trace  of  the  Sphczrechinus,  or  maternal,  char- 


F\ 


FIG.  14. — A,  hybrid  larva  of  Spharechinus  $  ,  and  Echinus  $  ;  front 
view.  B,  the  same  ;  oblique,  side  view.  C,  dwarf  hybrid  larva  of 
Spharechinus  $  (non-nucleated  egg  fragment),  and  Echinus  S  ,  of 
pure  Echinus  type.  D,  the  same  larva  in  side  view.  (After 

189 


lioveri.) 


190 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


acteristics  can  be  seen.  The  development  of  this  larva 
has  hence  been  determined  solely  by  the  nucleus  of 
the  spermatozoan — i.  e.,  by  the  chromatin,  which  is  thus 
experimentally  demonstrated  to  be  the  bearer  of  the 
hereditary  qualities  in  the  cell,  the  material  basis  of 
heredity. 


VII. 

THE    DISTRIBUTION   OF   SPECIES. 

IN  the  present  paper  I  shall  consider  certain  facts 
of  animal  distribution  as  related  to  the  origin  of  spe- 
cies.     There    are    many    difficulties   in 
Illustrations  not     bf       •        th     f      t       f  geographical  distri- 
arguments. 

bution  down  to  the  needs  of  concrete  il- 
lustration. And  in  this  connection  it  is  especially  im- 
portant to  distinguish  single  illustrations  from  argu- 
ments. Isolated  cases  of  geographical  variations  in 
species,  for  example,  would  not  have  great  value  as  ar- 
guments for  the  development  theory  were  the  cases 
really  isolated.  The  force  lies  in  this  fact,  that  these 
cases  are  typical ;  that  what  may  be  said  of  one  is  true 
of  a  thousand.  In  like  manner  the  full  force  of  the 
laws  of  homology  and  heredity  can  only  be  felt  when 
their  effect  is  cumulative,  as  in  the  mind  of  the  anato- 
mist who  has  followed  each  organ  through  its  protean 
disguises  in  a  wide  range  of  forms.  Again,  the  force 
of  the  argument  drawn  from  embryology  does  not  come 
from  a  knowledge  of  the  changes  in  a  single  egg.  All 
these  studies  need  the  second  premise,  obtained  by  years 
of  comparison  in  different  fields  of  investigation,  that 
no  case  is  isolated.  Without  this  premise,  the  argument 
would  be  incomplete.  The  few  cases  of  development 
oj  change  which  can  be  brought  to  popular  notice  are 
simply  illustrations  and  not  proofs. 

14  191 


I92 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


As  Professor  Bergen  has  well  said,  "  It  is  important 
that  we  should  understand  that  none  of  the  kinds  of 

evidence  in  favour  of  evolution  loses  so 
Cumulative  much  b  bd  represented  only  by 

evidence.  *,  * 

scattered  instances  as  the  argument  from 

distribution."  And,  conversely,  no  argument  is  more 
conclusive  when  all  the  known  facts  are  brought  into 
consideration  together.  The  universal  fact  of  the  muta- 
bility of  species  can  be  really  understood  or  appreciated 
only  by  him  who  has  seen  with  his  own  eyes  the  changes 
in  multitudes  of  species.  To  the  ordinary  observer  the 
species  seem  constant,  just  as  the  face  of  a  cliff  seems 
constant.  To  the  student  of  Nature,  mutability  is 
everywhere.  Just  as  the  wind  and  rain  and  frost  quietly 
but  surely  change  the  face  of  a  cliff,  so  do  other  forces 
of  Nature  as  quietly  but  as  surely  change  the  face  of  a 
species. 

It  was  this  phase  of  the  subject,  the  relation  of  spe- 
cies to  geography,  which  first  attracted  the  attention 
both  of  Darwin  and  Wallace.  Both  these  observers 
noticed  that  island  life  is  neither  strictly  like  nor  unlike 
the  life  of  the  nearest  land,  and  that  the  degree  of 
difference  differs  with  the  degree  of  isolation.  Both 
were  led  from  this  fact  to  the  theory  of  derivation,  and 
to  lay  the  greatest  stress  on  the  progressive  modifica- 
tion resulting  from  the  struggle  for  existence. 

In  the  voyage  of  the  Beagle  Darwin  was  brought 

in  contact  with  the  singular  fauna   of   the  Galapagos 

Islands,  that  cluster  of  volcanic   rocks 

Gah/Tos  °f     C   Which  UeS  in  the  °pen  Sea  ab°Ut  Six  hun~ 
dred  miles  west  of  the  coasts  of  Ecuador 

and  Peru.  The  sea  birds  of  these  islands  are  essentially 
the  same  as  those  of  the  coast  of  Peru.  So  with  most 
of  the  fishes.  We  can  see  how  this  might  well  be,  for 
both  sea  birds  and  fishes  can  readily  pass  from  the 


THE   DISTRIBUTION   OF   SPECIES. 


193 


one  region  to  the  other.  But  the  land  birds,  as  well  as 
the  reptiles,  insects,  and  plants,  are  mostly  peculiar  to 
the  islands.  The  same  species  are  found  nowhere  else. 
But  other  species  very  much  like  them  in  all  respects 
are  found,  and  these  all  live  along  the  coast  of  Peru. 
In  the  Galapagos  Islands,  according  to  Darwin's  notes, 
"  there  are  twenty-six  land  birds ;  of  these,  twenty-one, 
or  perhaps  twenty-three,  are  ranked  as  distinct  species, 
and  would  commonly  be  assumed  to  have  been  here 
created ;  yet  the  close  affinity  of  most  of  these  birds  to 
American  species  is  manifest  in  every  character,  in  their 
habits,  gestures,  and  tones  of  voice.  So  it  is  with  the 
other  animals  and  with  a  large  proportion  of  the  plants. 
.  .  .  The  naturalist,  looking  at  the  inhabitants  of  these 
volcanic  islands  in  the  Pacific,  feels  that  he  is  standing 
on  American  land." 

This  question  naturally  arises :  If  these  species  have 
been  created  as  we  find  them  on  the  Galapagos,  why  is 
it  that  they  should  all  be  very  similar  in  type  to  other 
animals,  living  under  wholly  different  conditions,  but  on  a 
coast  not  far  away  ?  And,  again,  why  are  the  ani- 
mals and  plants  of  another  cluster  of  volcanic  islands — 
the  Cape  Verde  Islands — similarly  related  to  those  of 
the  neighbouring  coast  of  Africa,  and  wholly  unlike 
those  of  the  Galapagos  ?  If  the  animals  were  created 
to  match  their  conditions  of  life,  then  those  of  the 
Galapagos  should  be  like  those  of  Cape  Verde,  the  two 
archipelagoes  being  extremely  alike  in  soil,  climate,  and 
physical  surroundings.  If  the  species  on  the  islands 
are  products  of  separate  acts  of  creation,  what  is  there 
in  the  nearness  of  the  coasts  of  Africa  or  Peru  to  in- 
fluence the  act  of  creation  so  as  to  cause  the  island 
species  to  be,  as  it  were,  echoes  of  those  on  shore  ? 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  should  adopt  the  obvious 
suggestion  that  both  these  clusters  of  islands  have  been 


194 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


colonized  by  immigrants  from  the  mainland,  the  fact  of 
uniformity  of  type  is  accounted  for,  but  what  of  the 
difference  of  species  ?  If  the  change  of  conditions  from 
continent  to  island  cause  such  great  and  permanent 
changes  as  to  form  new  species  from  the  old,  why  may 
not  like  changes  take  place  on  the  mainlands  as  well  as 
on  the  islands  ?  And  if  possible  on  the  mainland  of  South 
America,  what  evidence  have  we  that  species  are  per- 
manent anywhere  ?  May  they  not  be  constantly  chang- 
ing ?  May  not  what  we  now  consider  as  distinct  species 
be  only  the  present  phase  in  the  changing  history  of  the 
series  of  forms  which  constitute  the  species  ? 

The  studies  of  these  and  many  similar  facts  can  lead 
but  to  one  conclusion  : 

These  volcanic  islands  rose  from  the  sea  destitute  of 
land  life.  They  were  settled  by  the  waifs  of  wind  and 

of  storm,  birds  and  insects  blown  from 
Island  life.  .  .  ,  ,  .  ,  ..  , 

the  shore  by  trade  winds,  lizards  car- 
ried on  drift  logs  and  floating  vegetation.  Of  these 
waifs  few  came  perhaps  in  any  one  year,  and  few  per- 
haps of  those  who  came  made  the  islands  their  home; 
yet,  as  the  centuries  passed  on,  suitable  inhabitants 
were  found.  That  this  is  not  fancy  we  know,  for  we 
have  the  knowledge  of  many  ways  in  which  animals  are 
carried  from  their  natural  homes.  One  example  of  this 
may  be  seen  by  those  who  have  approached  our  eastern 
shores  by  sea  in  the  face  of  a  storm.  Hosts  of  land 
birds — sparrows,  warblers,  chickadees,  and  even  wood- 
peckers— are  carried  out  by  the  wind,  a  few  falling  ex- 
hausted on  the  decks  of  ships,  a  few  others  falling  on 
off-shore  islands,  like  the  Bermudas,  the  remainder 
drowned  in  the  sea. 

Of  the  immigrants  to  the  Galapagos  the  majority 
doubtless  die  and  leave  no  sign.  A  few  will  remain, 
multiply,  and  take  possession,  and  their  descendants  are 


THE   DISTRIBUTION   OF   SPECIES. 


195 


thus  native  to  the  islands.     But,  isolated  from  the  great 
mass  of  their  species  and  bred  under  new  surroundings, 

these  island  birds  come  to  differ  from 
Effects  of  migra-    their  nt       and   stin   more   frQm   the 


tion  on  species.  .  . 

great  mass  of  the  land  species  of  which 

their  ancestors  were  members.  Separated  from  these, 
their  individuality  would  manifest  itself.  They  would 
assume  with  new  environment  new  friends,  new  foes, 
new  conditions.  They  would  develop  qualities  peculiar 
to  themselves  —  qualities  intensified  by  isolation.  "  Mi- 
gration," says  Dr.  Coues,  "holds  species  true;  localiza- 
tion lets  them  slip."  This  would  be  more  exactly  the 
truth  should  we  say  that  localization  holds  peculiarities 
true  ;  migration  lets  them  slip.  Local  peculiarities  dis- 
appear with  wide  association,  and  are  intensified  when 
individuals  of  similar  peculiarities  are  kept  together. 
Should  later  migrations  of  the  original  land  species  come 
to  the  islands,  the  individuals  surviving  would  in  time 
form  new  species,  or,  more  likely,  mixing  with  the  mass 
of  those  already  arrived,  their  special  characters  would 
be  lost  in  those  of  the  majority. 

The   Galapagos,  first   studied  by  Darwin,  serve   to 

us  only  as  an  illustration.     The  same  problems  come  up 

in  one  guise  or  another  in  all  questions 

Effects  of  f  ge0orraphical  distribution,  whether  of 

isolation. 

continent   or   island.      The    relation   of 

the  fauna  of  one  region  to  that  of  another  depends  on 
the  ease  with  which  barriers  may  be  crossed.  Distinct- 
ness is  in  direct  proportion  to  isolation.  What  is  true  in 
this  regard  of  the  fauna  of  any  region  as  a  whole  is  like- 
wise true  of  any  of  its  individual  species.  The  degree  of 
resemblance  among  individuals  is  in  direct  proportion 
to  the  freedom  of  their  movements,  and  variations  within 
what  we  call  specific  limits  is  again  proportionate  to  the 
barriers  which  prevent  equal  and  perfect  diffusion. 


i96 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


The  various  divisions  or  realms  into  which  the  sur- 
face of  the  earth  may  be  divided  on  the  basis  of  the 

differences  in  animal  life,  each  has  its 
Barriers  to  boundary  in  the  obstacles  offered  to 

diffusion. 

the  spread  of  the  average  animal.    Each 

species  broadens  its  range*  as  far  as  it  can.  It  struggles, 
knowingly  or  not,  to  overcome  the  barriers  of  ocean  or 
river,  of  mountain  or  plain,  of  woodland  or  desert,  of 
moisture  or  drought,  of  cold  or  heat,  of  lack  of  food  or 
abundance  of  enemies — whatever  these  barriers  may  be. 
Were  it  not  for  these  barriers,  every  species  would  be- 
come what  only  man  now  is,  practically  cosmopolitan. 
Man  is  pre-eminently  the  barrier-crossing  animal.  The 
degree  of  hindrance  offered  by  any  barrier  to  the  exten- 
sion of  species  is  only  relative.  That  which  constitutes 
an  impassable  barrier  to  some  groups  is  a  high  road  to 
others.  The  river  which  opposes  the  passage  of  the 
monkey  or  the  cat  would  be  the  king's  highway  to  the 
frog  or  the  turtle.  The  waterfall  which  checks  the  ascent 
of  the  fish  is  the  chosen  home  of  the  ouzel. 

In  spite  of  the  great  variety  among  the  barriers  ex- 
isting on  the  earth,  we  may  divide  the  globe  roughly 
into  five  realms  or  areas  of  distribution,  having  their 
boundaries  in  the  sea  or  in  differences  of  climate.  One 
or  two  of  these  realms  are  sharply  defined ;  the  others 
are  surrounded  by  a  broad  fringe  of  debatable  ground, 
which  forms  a  region  of  transition  to  some  other  zone. 

The  largest  of  these  realms  is  the  holarctic  realm, 
which  comprises  nearly  all  of  Asia,  Europe,  and  North 

America,  the  arctic  and  north  temperate 
Holarctic  realm.  „,,  , 

zones.     The   north  temperate  zone  has 

practically  a  continuous  climate,  the  chief  variations 
being  in  elevation  and  rainfall.  The  close  union  of 
Alaska  to  Siberia  forms  an  almost  unbroken  land  area 
from  the  eastern  coast  of  America  around  to  western 


THE   DISTRIBUTION   OF   SPECIES. 


I97 


Europe.  To  the  south  the  species  increase  in  number 
and  variety  ;  the  arctic  regions  are  remarkable  for  what 
they  lack,  yet  the  general  character  of  the  life  is  almost 
unbroken  over  this  vast  district.  Alfred  Russell  Wal- 
lace refers  to  this  unity  of  northern  life  in  these  words: 

"When  an  Englishman  travels  by  the  nearest  sea 
route  from  Great  Britain  to  northern  Japan,  he  passes 
by  countries  very  unlike  his  own  both  in  aspect  and  in 
natural  productions.  The  sunny  isles  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean, the  sands  and  date  palms  of  Egypt,  the  arid 
rocks  of  Aden,  the  cocoa  groves  of  Ceylon,  the  tiger- 
haunted  jungles  of  Malacca  and  Singapore,  the  fertile 
plains  and  volcanic  peaks  of  Luzon,  the  forest-clad  moun- 
tains of  Formosa,  the  bare  hills  of  China  pass  succes- 
sively in  review,  until  after  a  circuitous  journey  of  thir- 
teen thousand  miles  he  finds  himself  at  Hakodate,  in 
Japan.  He  is  now  separated  from  his  starting  point  by 
an  almost  endless  succession  of  plains  and  mountains, 
arid  deserts  or  icy  plateaus;  yet,  when  he  visits  the 
interior  of  the  country,  he  sees  so  many  familiar  natural 
objects  that  he  can  hardly  help  fancying  he  is  close  to 
his  home/  He  finds  the  woods  and  fields  tenanted  by 
tits,  hedge  sparrows,  wrens,  wagtails,  larks,  redbreasts, 
thrushes,  buntings,  and  house  sparrows,  some  absolutely 
identical  with  our  own  feathered  friends,  others  so 
closely  resembling  them  that  it  requires  a  practised 
ornithologist  to  tell  the  difference.  .  .  .  There  are  also, 
of  course,  many  birds  and  insects  which  are  quite  new 
and  peculiar,  but  these  are  by  no  means  so  numerous  or 
conspicuous  as  to  remove  the  general  impression  of  a 
wonderful  resemblance  between  the  productions  of  such 
remote  islands  as  Britain  and  Yesso."  (Island  Life.) 

A  journey  to  the  southward  from  Britain  or  Japan 
or  Illinois,  or  any  point  within  the  holarctic  realm, 
would  show  the  successive  changes  in  the  character  of 


igS  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

life,  though  gradual,  to  be  more  rapid.  The  barrier  of 
frost  which  keeps  the  fauna  of  the  tropics  from  en- 
croaching on  the  northern  regions  once  crossed,  we 
come  to  the  multitude  of  animals  whose  life  depends  on 
sunshine,  the  characteristic  forms  of  the  neotropical 
realm. 

The  neotropical  realm  includes  South  America,  the 
West  Indies,  and  the  hot  coast  lands  of  Mexico   and 

Central  America.     To  the  northward  this 
Neotropical  realm  oved          the  holarctic  in  the  tran. 

realm.  .  .  . 

sition  regions  of  Sonora,  Arizona,  Texas, 

and  Florida;  but  to  the  southward  the  barrier  of  the 
broad  ocean  keeps  it  practically  distinct  from  all  others. 
The  richness  of  this  fauna  in  forms  and  species  makes 
the  great  forests  of  the  Amazon  the  dream  of  the 
naturalist.  Joaquin  Miller  gives  a  vivid  picture  of  the 
life  of  tropical  America  : 

"  Birds  hung  and  swung,  green-robed  and  red, 
Or  drooped  in  curved  lines  dreamily, 
Rainbows  reversed  from  tree  to  tree  ; 
Or  sang,  low  hanging  overhead, 
Sang  soft  as  if  they  sang  and  slept, 
Sang  low  like  some  far  waterfall, 
And  took  no  note  of  us  at  all." 

Corresponding  to  the  neotropical  realm  in  position, 
but  with  a  less  rich  and  varied  fauna,  is  the  Ethiopian 

realm.     This  includes  the  greater  part 
Ethiopian  realm.       ,     .,  .  •  ,      ,, 

of   Africa,    merging    gradually    on    the 

north  into  the  holarctic  realm,  through  the  transition 
regions  of  Barbary,  Italy,  and  Spain.  In  monkeys,  her- 
bivorous animals,  and  reptiles,  this  region  is  wonderfully 
rich.  In  variety  of  birds  and  fishes  the  neotropical 
region  far  surpasses  it. 

The  Indian  realm  comprises  southern  Asia  and  the 
neighbouring  islands.     Its  rich  fauna  has  much  in  com- 


THE   DISTRIBUTION   OF   SPECIES. 


I99 


mon  with  that  of  Africa,  and  it  is,  moreover,  surrounded 
by  transition  districts  which  lead  on  the  north  to  the 

holarctic  and  on  the  west  to  the  Ethiop- 
Indian  realm.          .  •  „         .  ,        T     ,.  .        . 

ian.     On   the  east  the  Indian   realm  is 

lost  in  the  islands  of  Polynesia,  which  represents  each 
one  its  own  degree  of  transition  and  isolation. 

The  Australian  realm  of  Australia  and  its  islands  is 
more  isolated  than  any  of  the  others.  It  shows  a  sin- 
gular development  of  low  or  primitive 
•  types  of  vertebrate  life,  as  though  in  the 
progress  of  evolution  this  continent  had 
been  left  a  whole  geological  age  behind  the  others.  It 
is  certain  that,  could  the  closely  competing  fauna  of  the 
holarctic  or  Indian  realms  have  been  able  to  invade 
Australia,  the  dominant  mammals  and  birds  of  that  re- 
gion would  not  have  been  marsupials  and  parrots.  Un- 
specialized  types  abound  only  where  barriers  have  pre- 
vented competition.  The  larger  the  land  area  the  greater 
the  competition  and  the  more  specialized  its  character- 
istic forms.  As  part  of  this  specialization  is  in  the  di- 
rection of  hardiness,  the  species  of  the  large  experience 
are  the  more  persistent  and  less  easy  of  extermination. 
The  rapid  multiplication  which  certain  holarctic  animals 
and  plants  have  shown  when  transported  to  the  Aus- 
tralian realm,  demonstrates  what  might  have  taken  place 
if  impassable  barriers  had  not  previously  shut  them  out. 

Each  of  these  great  realms  may  be  indefinitely  sub- 
divided into  provinces  and  sections,  for  there  is  no  end 
to  the  possibility  of  analysis.  No  township  or  school 
district  has  exactly  the  same  animals  or  plants  as  any 
other ;  and,  finally,  in  ultimate  analysis,  no  two  animals 
or  plants  are  alike.  Modification  comes  with  the  growth 
of  each  new  individual,  and  steadily  increases  with  the 
individual's  separation  in  time  or  space  from  the  parent 
stock.  Moreover,  we  observe  apparent  anomalies  of 


200  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

distribution  in  every  realm ;  here  appears  an  animal, 
there  a  plant,  which  seems  to  have  a  character  or  place 
which  it  ought  not  to  hold.  To  the  result  of  unexpected 

or  chance  crossing  of  barriers  these  ap- 
Anomaliesm  parent  anomalies  in  geographical  dis- 
distnbution. 

tnbution  are  due.  Anomalies  in  distribu- 
tion, like  anomalies  in  evolution,  would  cease  to  be  such 
if  we  knew  all  the  facts  and  circumstances  of  their  pre- 
vious history.  The  present  range  of  the  tapir  in  farther 
India  and  in  the  northern  part  of  South  America,  two 
widely  separated  regions,  is  at  first  sight  an  anomaly  of 
distribution.  This  anomaly  disappears  when  we  know 
that  formerly  the  tapir  ranged  over  the  holarctic  realm, 
and  became  gradually  extinct  with  the  changing  climate. 
The  bones  of  a  tapir,  much  like  one  of  the  South  Amer- 
ican species,  are  found  in  recent  clays  in  Indiana  (Elletts- 
ville,  Monroe  County),  and  similar  remains  exist  in 
France,  in  China,  and  in  Burmah.  The  isolated,  unex- 
terminated  colonies  are  now  left  at  the  extreme  of  the 
animal's  former  range,  and  these  colonies  at  present 
constitute  what  we  call  distinct  species. 

The  more  extended  are  our  studies  the  fewer  are  the 
anomalies  which  arrest  our  attention,  and  the  fewer  are 

the  distinctive  or  characteristic  forms. 
Adaptation  of  There  is  little  foundation  for  the  current 
animals  to  envi-  .  .  ,  .  .  .  .  , 

ronment  belief  that  each  species  of  animal  has 

originated  in  the  area  it  now  occupies,  for 
in  many  cases  our  knowledge  of  palaeontology  shows 
the  reverse  of  this  to  be  true.  Even  more  incorrect  is 
the  belief  that  each  species  occupies  the  district  or  the 
surroundings  best  fitted  for  its  habitation.  This  is  mani- 
fest in  the  fact  of  the  extraordinary  fertility  and  persist- 
ence shown  by  many  kinds  of  animals  and  plants  in 
taking  possession  of  new  lands,  which  have  become, 
through  the  voluntary  or  involuntary  interference  of 


THE   DISTRIBUTION   OF   SPECIES.  2OI 

man,  open  to  their  invasion.  Facts  of  this  sort  are  the 
"  enormous  increase  of  rabbits  and  pigs  in  Australia 
and  New  Zealand,  of  horses  and  cattle  in  South  America, 
and  of  the  sparrow  in  North  America,  though  in  none 
of  these  cases  are  the  animals  natives  of  the  countries 
in  which  they  thrive  so  well."  (Wallace.)  The  persist- 
ent spreading  of  European  weeds  to  the  exclusion  of 
our  native  plants  is  a  fact  too  well  known  to  every 
farmer  in  America.  The  constant  movement  westward 
of  the  whiteweed  and  the  Canada  thistle  marks  the 
steady  deterioration  of  our  grass  fields.  Especially 
noteworthy  has  been  this  change  in  Aus- 

utr  traHa  and   NeW  Zealand'     In   New  Zea' 

realm     '  land  the  weeds  of  Europe,  toughened  by 

centuries  of  struggle,  have  won  an  easy 
victory  over  the  native  plants.  Edward  Wakefield,  in 
his  history  of  New  Zealand,  says  that  "  many  animals 
and  birds  acquire  peculiarities  in  the  new  country  which 
would  indeed  astonish  those  accustomed  to  them  in  the 
old.  They  usually  run  to  a  much  larger  size  and  breed 
oftener.  They  also  take  to  strange  kinds  of  food. 
Birds  deemed  granivorous  at  home  become  insectivorous 
here,  and  vice  versa.  Some  learn  the  habits  of  the  na- 
tive species.  Skylarks  imitate  the  native  wagtail,  and 
may  often  be  seen  perching  on  fences  and  telegraph 
wires.  They  sing  in  the  nighttime,  too,  a  thing  un- 
heard of  in  the  old  country,  and  doubtless  acquired  from 
the  nocturnal  habits  of  the  New  Zealand  birds." 

The  European  house  fly  in  New  Zealand  has  com- 
pletely extirpated  the  large  bluebottle  fly,  which  was 
formerly  a  source  of  great  annoyance  to  the  settlers. 
An  account  is  given  of  a  farmer  who  filled  a  bottle  with 
house  flies  and  carried  them  eighty  miles  into  the  coun- 
try, liberating  them,  one  by  one,  in  the  vicinity  of  his 
sheepfolds,  in  order  to  let  them  take  the  place  of  the 


202  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

native  flies.  It  is  said  that  red  clover  would  not  grow 
in  New  Zealand  until  bumblebees  were  introduced  to 
fertilize  its  flowers.  Wakefield  estimates  that  the  intro- 
duction of  these  large  wild  bees  has  been  worth  five  mil- 
lion dollars  to  the  farmers  in  New  Zealand. 

Dr.  Edward  L.  Youmans  quotes  from  Dr.  Hooker 
the  statement  that,  in  New  Zealand,  "  the  cow  grass  has 
taken  possession  of  the  roadsides ;  dock  and  water  cress 
choke  the  rivers;  the  sow  thistle  is  spread  all  over  the 
country,  growing  luxuriantly  up  to  six  thousand  feet ; 
white  clover  in  the  mountain  districts  displaces  the  na- 
tive grasses."  The  native  (Maori)  saying  is,  "As  the  white 
man's  rat  has  driven  away  the  native  rat,  as  the  European 
fly  drives  away  our  own,  and  the  clover  kills  our  fern,  so 
will  the  Maoris  disappear  before  the  white  man  himself." 

Prof.  Sidney  Dickinson  gives  the  following  valuable 
notes  on  the  rabbit  and  other  plagues  of  Australia  : 

"  The  average  annual  cost  to  Australasia  of  the 
rabbit  plague  is  ^700,000,  or  nearly  $3,500,000. 

"  The  work  which  these  enormous  figures  represent 
has  a  marked  effect  in  reducing  the  number  of  rabbits 
in  the  better  districts,  although  there  is  little  reason  to 
suppose  that  their  extermination  will  ever  be  more  than 
partial.  Most  of  the  larger  runs  show  very  few  at  pres- 
ent, and  rabbit-proof  fencing,  which  has  been  set  around 
thousands  of  square  miles,  has  done  much  to  check 
further  inroads.  Until  this  invention  began  to  be 
utilized  it  was  not  uncommon  to  find  as  many  as  a 
hundred  rabbiters  employed  on  a  single  property,  whose 
working  average  was  from  three  hundred  to  four  hundred 
rabbits  per  day.  As  they  received  five  shillings  a  hun- 
dred from  the  station  owner,  and  were  also  able  to  sell 
the  skins  at  eight  shillings  a  hundred,  their  profession 
was  most  lucrative.  Seventy-five  dollars  a  week  was  not 
an  uncommon  wage,  and  many  an  unfortunate  squatter 


THE   DISTRIBUTION   OF    SPECIES. 


203 


looked  with  envy  upon  his  rabbiters,  who  were  heaping 
up  modest  fortunes,  while  he  himself  was  slowly  being 
eaten  out  of  house  and  home. 

"  The  professional  rabbiter  is  not  an  agreeable  com- 
panion. He  is  covered  with  the  fluffy  fur  of  his  quarry 
until  he  bears  much  of  the  appearance  of  a  mouldy 
cheese  ;  his  clothing  is  streaked  with  blood  and  dirt, 
and  from  his  hair  and  beard,  and,  in  fact,  from  his 
entire  person,  exhales  a  strong  leporine  odor.  Not  until 
he  attains  this  consummation  can  he  hope  for  the  highest 
success  in  his  profession,  for  the  game  on  which  he  wars 
is  gifted  with  keen  sensibilities,  and  will  avoid  the  trap 
or  the  fatal  phosphorized  grain  that  has  been  placed  in 
its  way  by  hands  ordinarily  clean. 

"  The  fecundity  of  the  rabbit  is  amazing,  and  his 
invasion  of  remote  districts  swift  and  mysterious. 
Careful  estimates  show  that,  under  favourable  condi- 
tions, a  pair  of  Australian  rabbits  will  produce  six 
litters  a  year,  averaging  five  individuals  each.  As  the 
offspring  themselves  begin  breeding  at  the  age  of  six 
months,  it  is  shown  that,  at  this  rate,  the  original  pair 
might  be  responsible  in  five  years  for  a  progeny  of  over 
twenty  millions.  That  the  original  score  that  were 
brought  to  the  country  have  propagated  after  some 
such  ratio,  no  one  can  doubt  who  has  seen  the  enormous 
hordes  that  now  devastate  the  land  in  certain  districts. 
In  all  but  the  remoter  sections,  however,  the  rabbits 
are  now  fairly  under  control ;  one  rabbiter  with  a  pack 
of  dogs  supervises  stations  where  one  hundred  were 
employed  ten  years  ago,  and  with  ordinary  vigilance 
the  squatters  have  little  to  fear.  Millions  of  the  animals 
have  been  killed  by  fencing  in  the  water  holes  and  dams 
during  a  dry  season,  whereby  they  died  of  thirst,  and 
lay  in  enormous  piles  against  the  obstructions  they  had 
frantically  and  vainly  striven  to  climb,  and  poisoned 


204 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


grain  and  fruit  have  killed  myriads  more.  A  fortune  of 
^25,000  offered  by  the  New  South  Wales  Government 
still  awaits  the  man  who  can  invent  some  means  of 
general  destruction,  and  the  knowledge  of  this  fact  has 
brought  to  the  notice  of  the  various  colonial  govern- 
ments some  very  original  devices. 

"  Another  great  pest  to  the  squatters  is  developing 
in  the  foxes,  two  of  which  were 'imported  from  Cumber- 
land some  years  ago  by  a  wealthy  station  owner,  who 
thought  that  they  might  breed,  and  give  himself  and 
friends  an  occasional  day  with  the  hounds.  His  modest 
desires  were  soon  met  in  the  development  of  a  race  of 
foxes  far  surpassing  the  English  variety  in  strength  and 
aggressiveness,  which  not  only  devour  many  sheep,  but 
out  of  pure  depravity  worry  and  kill  ten  times  as  many 
as  they  can  eat.  When  to  these  plagues  is  added  the 
ruin  of  thousands  of  acres  from  the  spread  of  the 
thistle,  which  a  canny  Scot  brought  from  the  Highlands 
to  keep  alive  in  his  breast  the  memories  of  Wallace  and 
Bruce;  the  well-nigh  resistless  inroads  of  furze;  and,  in 
New  Zealand,  the  blocking  up  of  rivers  by  the  English 
watercress,  which  in  its  new  home  grows  a  dozen  feet 
in  length,  and  has  to  be  dredged  out  to  keep  navigation 
open,  it  may  be  understood  that  colonials  look  with 
jaundiced  eye  upon  suggestions  of  any  further  interfer- 
ence with  Australian  nature. 

"  Not  to  be  outdone  by  foreign  importations,  the 
country  itself  has  shown  in  the  humble  locust  a  nuisance 
quite  as  potent  as  rabbit,  fox,  or  thistle.  This  bane  of 
all  men  who  pasture  sheep  on  grass  has  not  been  much 
in  evidence  until  within  the  last  few  years,  when  the 
great  destruction  of  indigenous  birds  by  the  gun  and  by 
poisoned  grain  strewn  for  rabbits  has  facilitated  its  in- 
crease. The  devastation  caused  by  these  insects  last 
year  was  enormous,  and  befell  a  district  a  thousand 


THE   DISTRIBUTION   OF   SPECIES. 


205 


miles  long  and  two  hundred  wide.  For  days  they  passed 
in  clouds  that  darkened  the  earth  with  the  gloomy  hue  of 
an  eclipse,  while  the  ground  was  covered  with  crawling 
millions,  devouring  every  green  thing,  and  giving  to  the 
country  the  appearance  of  being  carpeted  with  scales. 
It  has  been  discovered,  however,  that  before  they  attain 
their  winged  state  they  can  easily  be  destroyed,  and  en- 
ergetic measures  will  be  taken  against  them  throughout 
all  the  inhabited  districts  of  Australia  whenever  they 
make  another  appearance."  (Station  Life  in  Australia, 
Scribner's  Magazine,  February,  1892,  pp.  136-154.) 

I  was  lately  called  to  examine  a  specially  interesting 
problem  in  geographical  distribution,  that  of  the  disper- 
sion of  fishes  in  the  Yellowstone  Park. 
Trout  in  Yellow-    Thig          ion    .  ^    h  yolcanic   plateau 

stone  Park. 

formed  by  the  filling  of  a  mountain  basin 

with  a  vast  deposit  of  lava.  The  streams  of  the  park  are 
for  the  most  part  among  the  coldest  and  clearest  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  and  apparently  in  every  way  suitable 
for  the  growth  of  trout.  All  the  hot  springs  of  the  great 
geyser  basin  are  not  sufficient  to  warm  the  waters  of 
the  Firehole  River.  Yet,  with  the  exception  of  the  Yel- 
lowstone itself,  all  these  streams  are  destitute  of  fish  life. 
A  reason  for  this  is  apparent  in  the  fact  that  the  plateau 
is  fringed  with  cataracts  which  no  fish  can  ascend.  Each 
stream  has  a  canon  and  waterfall  near  the  point  where 
it  exchanges  the  hard  bed  of  lava  for  the  rock  below. 
So  the  best  of  trout  streams,  for  an  area  of  fifteen  hun- 
dred square  miles,  are  left  without  trout,  because  their 
natural  inhabitants  can  not  get  to  them.* 

*  Since  this  was  written,  the  principal  waters  of  this  region 
have  been  stocked  with  trout  of  different  species,  and  these  have 
multiplied  with  great  rapidity.  There  is  now  an  abundance  of 
trout  in  the  Firehole,  Gibbon,  Gardiner,  and  Lewis  Rivers,  as  well 
as  in  Shoshone  Lake. 


2o6  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

On  the  theory  that  each  species  occupies  those  places 
best  suited  to  its  life,  this  fact  would  represent  a  great 
oversight  on  the  part  of  Mother  Nature.  But  with  this 
is  the  curious  fact  that  the  Yellowstone  itself,  both 
above  and  below  its  falls,  is  well  stocked  with  trout  and 
with  no  other  fish.  This  is  an  anomaly  of  distribution, 
but  this  anomaly  disappears  when  we  examine  the  con- 
tinental divide  at  the  head  of  the  Yellowstone.  At 

one  point,  as  Dr.  Barton  W.  Evermann, 
1  wo-ocean  Pass.    _       _..  ._ 

Dr.  Oliver  P.  Jenkins,  and  others  have 

shown,  the  Two-ocean  Pass,  only  about  an  eighth  of  a 
mile  of  wet  meadow  and  marsh,  separates  the  drainage 
of  the  Yellowstone  from  that  of  the  Columbia.  From 
the  Columbia  the  Yellowstone  has  therefore  received  its 
trout.  No  doubt  every  anomaly  of  distribution  would 
become  perfectly  simple  could  we  only  know  all  the 
facts  concerned  in  the  case. 

The  laws   of  geographical  distribu- 

Lawsofdistribu-  ^  Qf  animals  reduce  themselves  to 
tion  of  animals. 

these  very  simple  propositions: 

Every  species  of  animal  may  be  found  in  any  part  of 
the  earth,  unless : 

1.  It  has  been  unable  to  reach  that  region,  through 
barriers  of  some  sort,  or, 

2.  Having  reached  it,  it  is  unable  to  maintain  itself, 
in  competition  with  other  forms,  or  on  account  of  the 
conditions  of  environment,  or  else, 

3.  Having  maintained  itself,  it  has  become  so  altered 
through  natural  selection  as  to  become  a  species  distinct 
from  its  ancestors. 

The  primary  barriers  to  distribution  are  the  heights 
of  the  land  and  the  depths  of  the  sea — physical  obstacles 
not  to  be  crossed.  Next  in  importance  is  the  barrier  of 
climate.  With  some  forms  of  life  this  is  absolute,  for  the 
palm  and  the  banana  are  the  index  of  the  torrid  zorre  as 


THE   DISTRIBUTION   OF   SPECIES. 


207 


the  dwarf  birch  and  reindeer  moss  are  the  index  of  the 
frigid.  "  Plants,"  says  Dr.  Gray,  "  are  the  thermometers 
of  the  ages  by  which  climatic  extremes  and  climates  in 
general  are  best  measured."  In  many  groups  anatom- 
ical characters  are  not  more  profound  or 
Barriers  of  land,  Qf  jQn  standing  than  are  the  adapta- 
sea,  and  climate.  . 

tions  to  heat  and  cold.  Heat-loving  ani- 
mals are  far  more  numerous  in  species  than  animals  of 
cold  climates,  though  the  latter  often  make  up  by  greater 
abundance  of  individuals.  Barriers  less  important  than 
those  of  climate  arise  from  external  surroundings — from 
absence  of  means  of  defence,  from  character  of  food,  of 
air,  of  water,  and  the  presence  of  various  enemies.  These 
conditions  vary  in  their  importance  with  each  group  of 
animals,  yet  apparently  the  least  of  them  may  be  able 
to  limit  the  range  of  species.  To  limit  the  range  is  the 
first  step  toward  extinction,  for  to  cease  to  advance  is 
to  retreat.  Adverse  conditions  may  invade  even  the 
heart  of  its  distribution,  causing  reduction  of  numbers, 
which,  if  long  continued,  must  mean  rarity  and  final  ex- 
termination. Extinction  comes  to  those  species  we  call 
rare,  and  its  advent  must  be  unnoticed.  Circumstances 
become  unfavourable  to  the  growth  or  reproduction  of 
some  animal.  Its  numbers  are  reduced — it  is  rare — it 
is  gone. 

The  air  in  Indiana  and  Kentucky  but  a  few  years  since 
was  dark  with  the  hordes  of  passenger  pigeons  at  the 
time  of  their  fall  migrations.  The  advance  of  a  tree-de- 
stroying, pigeon-shooting  civilization  has  gone  steadily 
on,  and  now  the  bird  which  once  filled  our  western 
forests  is  in  the  same  region  an  ornithological  curiosity. 

A  very  slight  change  in  the  environment  of  any  species 
may  be  a  matter  of  the  greatest  moment  as  regards  its  in- 
crease or  permanence.     The  dependence  of  the  clover 
on  the  number  of  cats  in  a  certain  neighbourhood  is  an 
15 


2oS  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

illustration  given  us  by  Mr.  Darwin.    The  clover  depends 
on  the  bumble-bee  for  the  fertilization  of  its  pods.    The 

nests  of  the  bumblebee  are  destroyed  by 
latenlependence  the  fidd  mouse>  which  .&  thug  an  enemy 

of  the  clover.  The  balance  is  restored 
by  the  work  of  the  cat,  who  captures  the  mouse  and  pre- 
vents its  ravages  on  the  nests  of  the  bee.  The  old  nur- 
sery jingle  of  "  the  cow  that  tossed  the  dog  that  worried 
the  cat  that  killed  the  rat "  is  repeated  throughout  Na- 
ture. With  any  change  in  any  of  the  elements  in  this 
series  the  whole  equilibrium  of  Nature  is  interrupted. 
For  this  equilibrium  is  apparent  only — a  sort  of  armed 
neutrality,  an  established  order  of  things  which  the 
superficial  observer  mistakes  for  real  peace  and  per- 
manence. 

In  some  groups  we  find   evidence  of  a  progressive 
adaptation  of  individuals  to  circumstances — for  example, 

to  climate,  ending  in  the  formation  of 
The  arctic  birch.  .  . 

new  species  to  accord  with  changed  con- 
ditions of  temperature.  We  may  illustrate  this  by 
means  of  the  arctic  birches.  In  Norway,  as  in  most 
northern  regions  with  a  moist  climate,  there  are  large 
forests  of  birches.  In  the  valleys,  where  the  summers 
are  warm  and  reasonably  long,  the  birches  of  different 
species  grow  to  be  considerable  trees.  Farther  to  the 
north,  or  higher  up  the  mountains,  the  summer  is  too 
short  for  the  growth  of  birch  trees  and  their  place  is 
taken  by  birches  which  never  pass  beyond  the  size  of 
small  bushes.  Still  higher  up  there  are  birches  even 
where  snow  falls  every  month  of  the  year,  and  the  dis- 
tant sun  gives  only  a  glimpse  of  summer  in  July.  Com- 
petition with  other  plants  is,  of  course,  not  severe  in 
such  regions,  but  the  birches  must  struggle  against  the 
weather.  They  can  live  and  multiply  if  only  they  can 
adjust  themselves  to  the  conditions  of  life.  They  must 


THE   DISTRIBUTION   OF   SPECIES. 


209 


keep  down  their  size,  they  must  carry  as  little  foliage 
as  possible,  and  their  stems  must  be  tough  enough  to 
resist  snow  and  hardy  enough  to  withstand  almost  per- 
petual frost.  Their  year's  growth  must  be  finished 
in  a  very  short  time, 
and  leaves,  flowers, 
and  seeds  must  fol- 
low in  the  most  rapid 
succession.  In  short, 
there  is  room  for 
birch  trees  here,  if 
only  the  trees  can  be 
reduced  to  their  low- 
est terms.  And  so 
birch  trees  have  crept 
up  the  mountain  sides 
even  to  the  very 
edges  of  the  perpet- 
ual snow.  But  such 
trees  !  All  trees  re- 
quiring sunshine,  or 
long  time  for  their 
summer's  growth,  are 
rigidly  kept  away  by 
"  natural  selection." 
The  cold  climate  dwarfs  the  individual,  and  the  hard 
conditions  exclude  every  individual  not  dwarfed.  I  have 
before  me  three  birch  trees  from  a  Norwegian  mountain 
called  the  "Suletind" — the  little  trees  known  to  the 
Norwegian  peasants  as  "  Hundsoire,  or  "  dogs'-ears." 
The  trunk  of  each  tree  is  barely  an  inch  in  height. 
There  are  no  branches  and  but  three  leaves.  Half  in- 
closed by  the  uppermost  leaf  is  the  single  little  catkin 
of  flowers.  Leaves  in  June,  blossoms  in  July,  fruit  in 
August,  and  then  the  little  tree  is  ready  for  its  nine 


FIG.  15. — The  arctic 
birch,  Suletind, 
Norway.  (After 
nature.) 


2io  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

months'  sleep.  These  little  trees  are  the  Lapps  of  forest 
vegetation. 

All  natural  history  is  full  of  similar  cases  of  modifi- 
cations. Everywhere  there  is  the  most  perfect  adapta- 
tion of  life  to  its  conditions.  But  this  adaptation  must 
come  about  through  the  survival  of  those  organisms 
fittest  to  live  under  the  conditions,  while  the  unfit  die 
out  and  leave  no  progeny.  But  fitness  is  a  relative 
term  ;  for  in  many  cases,  as  with  the  Norwegian  dwarf 
birches,  the  deformed  or  stunted  may  be  the  only  ones 
fitted  to  survive.  An  advantage  ever  so  slight  must  in 
the  long  run  conquer. 

The  arctic  birches  serve  as  one  illustration  only  of 
the  spread  and  change  of  organisms  in  the  face  of  bar- 
riers apparently  insurmountable.     I  can 
Crossing  the  nQt   enter  }nto    det?ljis  as  to    the    many 

barriers.  .  ,       ,  .   ,      ......      , 

ways   in    which    individuals   manage   to 

cross  the  barriers  which  usually  limit  the  species.  These 
ways  are  as  varied  as  the  creatures  themselves,  and  in- 
finitely more  varied  than  the  barriers.  By  the  long- 
continued  process  of  adjustment  to  circumstances,  with 
the  incessant  destruction  of  the  unadapted,  the  various 
organisms  have  become  so  well  fitted  to  their  surround- 
ings as  to  give  rise  to  the  popular  impression  that  each 
species  now  inhabits  that  part  of  the  world  best  fitted 
for  its  occupation.  Yet  the  very  reverse  of  this  must 
be  true,  for  in  the  growth  of  any  species  it  is  these 
features  of  adaptation  which  are  the  last  to  appear. 
If  the  history  of  the  individual  is  an  epitome  of  the 
history  of  the  group  to  which  the  individual  belongs, 
then  adaptive  characters  appearing  late  in  the  growth 
of  the  individual  must  have  appeared  late  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  group.  They  are  the  last  changes  made 
in  the  organism — mere  after-thoughts  in  the  work  of 
creation. 


THE   DISTRIBUTION   OF   SPECIES.  211 

For  example,  the  long  pectoral  fins  of  the  flying  fish 
enable  it  to  make  long  leaps  through  the  air,  after  the 

manner  of  the  grasshopper.  Yet  we 
The  flying  fish.  .  .  *  .  _  . 

can    not    say  that    the  flying   fish   was 

meant  to  be  the  bird  among  fishes,  for  its  nearest  rela- 
tives are  without  wings,  and  the  wing  development  is 
one  of  the  latest  acquisitions  of  the  individual.  Its 
flight  is  simply  an  exaggeration  of  the  leaping  or  skim- 
ming which  related  forms  with  shorter  fins  accomplish. 
The  growth  of  the  fins  goes  on  with  the  increase  of  this 
power,  and  greater  power  comes  with  the  growth  of  the 
fins.  Morphologically,  a  flying  fish  is  even  less  like  a 
bird  than  the  humbler  fishes  from  which  it  is  de- 
scended. 

No  phase  in  the  history  of  systematic  science  is 
more  instructive  than  the  varying  attitudes  of  the 
naturalist  toward  those  local  modifications  of  species 
called  subspecies  or  geographical  variations. 

It  was  early  noticed  that,  while  individuals  of  any 
one  species  in  any  limited  region  are  substantially  alike, 
this  apparent  identity  disappears  with  the 
•s  or  examination  of  wider  extent  of  territory, 
varilutons^  These  differences  were  often  too  small 

to  justify  the  formation  or  recognition 
of  a  new  species,  but  too  evident  to  be  wholly  neglected. 
Such  subordinate  species  were  termed  by  Linnaeus  varie- 
ties, and  their  geographical  basis  was  often  recognised. 
Thus  under  Homo  sapiens,  or  aboriginal  man,  Linnaeus 
recognised  four  varieties — americanus,  europceus,  asiaticus, 
and  afer,  besides  the  half-mythical  monstrosus,  based  on 
traveller's  tales  of  Patagonians,  Hottentots,  and  dwarfs. 
As  with  the  varieties  of  man,  so  with  those  of  other 
animals  and  plants.  The  individuals  of  England  were 
not  quite  those  of  the  same  species  in  Italy,  and  those 
in  more  distant  lands  showed  still  greater  peculiarities. 


212  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

Sometimes  these  qualities   could   be   exactly  meas- 
ured, in  which  case  a  new  species  was  described.    Some- 
times they  proved  elusive,  and  the  sup- 
Doubtful  d  new  spedes  were  added   to   the 
species.  .  _, 
great    dust   heap    of    synonymy.     The 

work  of  the  systematic  zoologists  of  the  last  generation 
was  chiefly  in  museum  cataloguing  and  labelling.  To 
them  these  half-tangible  varieties  were  the  object  of 
special  opprobrium.  On  the  museum  shelves  they  were 
simply  a  nuisance,  obscuring  the  characters  of  the  real 
species  and  throwing  closet-formed  ideas  of  Nature  into 
utter  confusion.  Professor  Cope  tells  us  how  variant 
shells  have  been  crushed  under  the  heel  of  the  indignant 
conchologist  because  they  would  go  neither  into  species 
"A"  nor  species  "  B."  Specimens  were  often  preserved 
from  "  typical  localities,"  so  that  no  confusion  might  be 
introduced  among  the  cherished  specific  characters. 
That  Nature  went  on  producing  these  varying  and  inter- 
mediate forms  was  no  concern  of  the  zoologist.  That 
such  forms  were  any  part  of  Nature's  real  plan  appar- 
ently never  occurred  to  the  followers  of  Linnaeus. 

Says  the  botanist  De  Candolle:  "They  are  mistaken 
who  suppose  that  the  greater  part  of  our  species  are 
clearly  limited,  and  that  the  doubtful  species  are  in  a 
feeble  minority.  This  seemed  to  be  true  as  long  as  a 
genus  was  imperfectly  known,  and  its  species  were 
founded  on  a  few  specimens — that  is  to  say,  were  pro- 
visional only;  just  as  we  come  to  know  them  better, 
intermediate  forms  flow  in,  and  doubts  as  to  the  limits 
of  the  species  become  more  numerous." 

The  ease  with  which  slight  variations  have  deceived 
and  confused  naturalists  has  been  one  of  the  most  dis- 
couraging features  in  the  history  of  science.  Such  va- 
riations have  formed  the  basis  of  thousands  of  useless 
and  distracting  names. 


THE   DISTRIBUTION   OF    SPECIES. 


213 


When  Darwin  was  at  work  upon  his  monograph  of 
the  barnacles  (Cirripedia),  he  wrote  to  a  friend  :  "  Sys- 
tematic work  would  be  easy  were  it  not 
Darwin's  for   thjg   confoun(jed    variation,    which, 

experience.  . 

however,  is  pleasant  to  me  as  a  special- 
ist, though  odious  as  a  systematist.  .  .  .  How  painfully 
true  is  your  remark  that  no  one  has  hardly  a  right  to 
examine  the  question  of  species  who  has  not  minutely 
described  many!  .  .  .  Certainly  I  have  felt  it  humil- 
iating, discussing  and  doubting  and  examining,  over  and 
over  again,  when  in  my  mind  the  only  doubt  has  been 
whether  the  form  varied  from  to-day  or  yesterday.  .  .  . 
After  describing  a  set  of  forms  as  distinct  species,  tear- 
ing up  my  manuscripts  and  making  them  one  species, 
tearing  that  up  and  making  them  separate,  and  then 
making  them  one  again  (which  has  happened  to  me),  I 
have  gnashed  my  teeth,  cursed  species,  and  asked  what 
sin  I  had  committed  to  be  so  treated." 

An  epoch  in  systematic  zoology  began  with  the  study 
of  the  collections  made  by   the  United   States  Pacific 

Railway  survey  some  forty  years  ago. 
The  Pacific  Rail-  Thfin  f  h  fi  . 

way  surveys. 

naturalists  the  details  of  the  fauna  of  a 

vast  district  under  the  same  parallels  of  latitude,  but 
showing  every  variation  in  rainfall,  elevation,  and  phys- 
ical surroundings.  The  most  valuable  results  of  these 
collections  were  seen  in  the  study  of  birds.  It  was 
found  in  general  that  each  bird  of  the  Atlantic  States 
had  its  counterpart  on  the  prairies,  the  sage  plains,  the 
mountains,  and  the  Pacific  slope.  Differences  were  care- 
fully sought  for  and  found,  for  the  followers  of  Professor 
Baird  allowed  nothing  to  escape  their  analysis.  There 
were  differences  in  size,  in  form  and  colour — slight  in  de- 
gree, but  nevertheless  really  existing — and  these  were 
made  the  basis  of  as  many  distinct  species.  Still  further 


214  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

studies  increased  the  number  of  these  species,  until  at 
last  a  large  proportion  of  our  birds  were  represented  by 
Eastern,  Western,  sage  brush,  and  prairie  species.  Some- 
times these  closely  connected  forms  were  distinguish- 
able at  first  sight,  as  in  the  case  of  the  yellowhammer 
and  its  double,  the  red-shafted  flicker ;  in  other  cases 
baffling  the  most  skilful,  as  with  the  two  species  of 
crow-blackbird. 

An  illustration  of  these  forms  and  their  relation  may 
be  taken  from  the  common  shore  lark  and  its  varieties, 
although  it  is  fair  to  say  that  some  of  these  variations 
have  never  been  regarded  as  species. 

The  shore  lark  or  horned  lark  (Otocoris  alpestris), 
ranges  widely  over  the  colder  and  open  parts  of  Europe, 

Asia,  and  America.     The  common  form, 
The  shore  larks.         ..     ,      7          ..-.,.  .. 

called  alpestris,  is  familiar  to  most  of  us. 

In  the  northwestern  region,  as  far  south  as  Utah,  is 
another  form,  equally  large  but  paler  in  colour  (leuco- 
Icema).  In  the  prairie  region  the  lark  is  of  the  ordinary 
colour  but  smaller  (praticola).  In  the  sage  plains  it  is  a 
similarly  small  but  pale  lark,  with  brighter  yellow  in  its 
throat ;  this  is  arenicola.  In  Texas  the  bird  is  still 
smaller  and  grayer  (giraudi) ;  while  the  small  form  found 
in  New  Mexico  and  Arizona  has  its  plumage  strongly 
washed  with  red  ;  this  is  chrysolocma.  In  the  interior  of 
California  the  shore  larks  are  still  smaller  and  redder 
(variety  rubea],  while  northward  and  coastwise  appears 
a  small  lark  with  more  streaked  plumage — this  is  stri- 
gata.  All  these  can  be  generally  recognised  by  an  ex- 
pert ornithologist,  and  doubtless  a  closer  analysis  would 
reveal  the  basis  for  still  finer  subdivisions.* 

*  In  the  Auk  for  April,  1890,  is  an  essay  on  the  Horned  Larks 
of  North  America,  by  Jonathan  Dwight,  Jr.  Mr.  Dwight's  con- 
clusions are  based  on  two  thousand  and  twelve  specimens  ;  those 
of  Mr.  H.  W.  Henshaw,  above  given,  on  three  hundred  and  fifty. 


THE   DISTRIBUTION   OF   SPECIES. 


215 


In    1871,  Dr.  Joel  A.  Allen  published  his  masterly 

paper  on  the  Mammals  and  Winter  Birds  of  Florida. 

This  memoir  has  had  the  practical  effect 

Work  of  Dr.  f  making  all  our  ornithologists,  for  the 

J.  A.  Allen.  .  .     .         .... 

most  part  against  their  will,  believers  in 

the  theory  of  derivation  of  species.  Dr.  Allen  took  up, 
as  a  matter  of  serious  study,  the  variations  in  individual 
birds.  He  showed  that  the  variation  of  individuals  of 
the  same  species  was  far  greater  than  had  been  sup- 
posed, and  that  the  characters  relied  upon  to  distinguish 
species  were  often  due  to  slight  increase  in  these  varia- 
tions. For  example,  in  Northern  birds  the  bodies  would 
be  larger,  the  bills  smaller  than  in  birds  of  the  same  spe- 
cies from  the  South,  and  the  coloration  of  birds  was 
often  directly  related  to  the  degree  of  rainfall.  He 
showed,  in  brief,  that  each  one  of  these  many  variations 
must  be  held  to  define  a  distinct  species,  or  else  that  the 
number  of  species  of  American  birds  would  have  to  be 
greatly  reduced  and  the  range  of  variation  inside  the 
species  would  need  to  be  correspondingly  extended. 

This  claim  for  attention  on  the  part  of  the  despised 
variety  produced  much  consternation  among  students  of 

birds.    But  facts  must  be  recognised,  and 
Species  defined        the   fin&1   result  hag  bgen   that  w 


by  missing  links.  , 

now  extended  our  idea  of  each  species 

until  it  is  broad  enough  to  include  all  that  we  know  of 
intermediate  and  varying  forms.  But  these  intermediate 
forms  must  be  known,  not  guessed  at,  before  the  status 
of  a  species  is  questioned.  When  a  hiatus  appears, 
whether  existing  either  in  fact  or  in  our  material  for 

To  the  forms  mentioned  above  Mr.  Dwight  adds  var.  adusta, 
small  and  "scorched  pink"  in  general  hue,  from  southern  Ari- 
zona and  northern  Mexico  ;  var.  menilli,  large  and  dusky,  in 
Idaho  and  neighbouring  regions  ;  and  var.  pallida,  very  small  and 
pale,  from  Lower  California. 


2i6  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

study,  there  we  put  our  line  of  definition.  "  We  can 
only  predicate  and  define  species  at  all,"  says  Dr.  Coues, 
"from  the  mere  circumstance  of  missing  links.  Species 
are  the  twigs  of  a  tree  separated  from  the  parent  stem. 
We  name  and  arrange  them  arbitrarily,  in  default  of 
means  of  reconstructing  the  whole  tree  in  accordance 
with  Nature's  ramifications."* 

What  is  true  of  birds  is  equally  the  case  with  other 
groups  of  animals.  Continued  explorations  bring  to 
light  each  year  new  species  of  American  fishes,  but  the 
number  of  new  forms  discovered  each  year  is  usually 
less  than  the  number  of  old  supposed  species  which  are 
found  to  intergrade  with  each  other,  and  have  so  become 
intenable. 

There  is  the  closest  possible  analogy  between  the 
variations  of  species  of  animals  or  plants  in  different 
districts  and  that  of  words  in  different 
Analogy  be-          languages.     The  language  of  any  people 
tween  variations    .g  ^   &   ^       ^   .&   m^e  Qf   wQrds 

of  species  and 
words  which  have  at  various  times  and  under 

various  conditions  come  into  it  from  the 
speech  of  other  people.  The  grammar  of  a  language  is 
an  expression  of  the  mutual  relations  of  these  words. 
The  word  as  it  exists  in  any  one  language  represents  the 
species.  Its  cognate  or  its  ancestor  in  any  other  lan- 
guage is  a  related  species.  The  words  used  in  a  given 
district  at  any  one  time  constitute  its  philological  fauna. 

*  Dr.  Allen  says  :  "  We  arbitrarily  define  a  species  as  a  group 
of  individuals  standing  out  distinct  and  disconnected  from  any 
similar  group  within  which,  though  occupying  different  parts  of 
the  common  habitat,  we  recognise  other  forms  characteristic  of 
and  restricted  to  particular  areas.  These  reach  a  maximum  de- 
gree of  differentiation  at  some  point  in  the  habitat,  and  thence 
gradually  shade  into  other  non-specific  forms  geographically  con- 
tiguous."—The  Auk,  January,  1890,  p.  7. 


THE   DISTRIBUTION   OF   SPECIES. 


217 


There  is  a  struggle  for  existence  between  words  as 
among  animals.  For  example,  the  words  begin  and  com- 
mence, Saxon  and  French,  are  in  the  English  language 
constantly  brought  into  competition.  The  fittest,  the 
one  that  suits  English  purposes  best,  will  at  last  sur- 
vive. If  both  have  elements  of  fitness,  the  field  will  be 
divided  between  them.  The  silent  letters  in  words  tell 
their  past  history,  as  rudimentary  organs  tell  what  an 
animal's  ancestry  has  been.  This  analogy,  of  course, 
is  not  perfect  in  all  regards,  as  the  passing  of  words 
from  mouth  to  mouth  is  not  homologous  with  the  gen- 
eration of  animals. 

We  may  illustrate  the  formation  of  species  of  ani- 
mals by  following  any  widely  used  word  across  Europe. 
Thus  the  Greek  aster  becomes  in  Latin  and  Italian 
stella ;  hence  the  Spanish  estrella  and  the  French  ttoile. 
In  Germany  it  becomes  Stern,  in  Danish  Stjern;  whence 
the  Scottish  starn  and  English  star. 

In  like  manner,  the  name  cherry  may  be  traced  from 
country  to  country  to  which  it  has  been  taken  in  culti- 
vation. Its  Greek  name,  Kerasos,  becomes  cerasus,  cere- 
sia,  ceriso,  cereso,  cerise,  among  the  Latin  nations.  This 
word  is  shortened  to  Kirsch  and  Kers  with  the  people  of 
the  North.  In  England,  cherys,  cherry,  are  obviously  de- 
rived from  ctrise. 

The  study  of  a  fauna  or  a  flora  as  a  whole  is  thus 
analogous  to  the  study  of  a  living  language.     The  evo- 
lution of  a  language  corresponds  to  the 
A  fauna  like  a        hist         of  the  Hfe  of  gome  region<      Phi. 
language.  • 

lology,  systematic  zoology,  and  botany 

are  alike  intimately  related  to  geography.  The  spread 
of  a  language,  like  the  spread  of  a  fauna,  is  limited  by 
natural  barriers.  It  is  the  work  of  civilization  to  break 
down  these  barriers  as  limiting  the  distribution  of  civi- 
lized man.  The  dominant  languages  cross  these  barri- 


2i8  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

ers  with  the  races  of  men  who  use  them,  and  with  them 
go  the  domesticated  animals  and  plants  and  the  weeds 
and  vermin  man  has  brought  unwillingly  into  relations 
of  domination. 

The  process  of  natural  selection  has  been  summed 
up  in  the  phrase  "survival  of  the  fittest."     This,  how- 
ever, tells  only  part  of  the  story.    "  Sur- 
The  survival  of       yiyal       f      fa  j  u        „    • 

the  existing.  fe  3 

covers  more  of  the  truth.     For  in  hosts 

of  cases  the  survival  of  characters  rests  not  on  any  spe- 
cial usefulness  or  fitness,  but  on  the  fact  that  individuals 
possessing  these  characters  have  inhabited  or  invaded 
a  certain  area.  The  principle  of  utility  explains  sur- 
vivals among  competing  structures.  It  rarely  accounts 
for  qualities  associated  with  geographic  distribution. 

The  nature  of  the  animals  which  first  colonize  a  dis- 
trict must  determine  what  the  future  fauna  shall  be. 
From  their  specific  characters,  which  are  neither  useful 
nor  harmful,  will  be  derived  for  the  most  part  the  spe- 
cific characters  of  their  successors. 

It  is  not  essential  to  the  meadow  lark  that  he  should 
have  a  black  blotch  on  the  breast  or  the  outer  tail- 
feather  white.  Yet  all  meadow  larks  have  these  charac- 
ters just  as  all  shore  larks  have  the  tiny  plume  behind 
the  ear.  Those  characters  of  the  parent  stock,  which 
may  be  harmful  in  the  new  relations,  will  be  eliminated 
by  natural  selection.  Those  especially  helpful  will  be 
intensified  and  modified,  but  the  great  body  of  charac- 
ters, the  marks  by  which  we  know  the  species,  will  be 
neither  helpful  nor  hurtful.  These  will  be  meaningless 
streaks  and  spots,  variations  in  size  of  parts,  peculiar 
relations  of  scales  or  hair  or  feathers,  little  matters 
which  can  neither  help  nor  hurt,  but  which  have  all  the 
persistence  heredity  can  give. 

The  species  of  animals  change  with  space  and  change 


THE   DISTRIBUTION   OF   SPECIES. 


2I9 


v;ith  time.  They  change  with  space  because,  as  they 
move  over  the  globe,  with  distance  comes  barriers,  with 
barriers  isolation,  and  any  degree  of  isolation  brings 
some  change  of  conditions.  This  means,  sooner  or  later, 
a  distinction  of  species. 

Species  change  with  time,  because  time  brings  changes 
in  conditions.     Epoch-making  events  of  one  sort  or  an- 
other come  in  to  break  even  the  most 
How  species  monotonous   existence.      If  time   could 

change  with  „  .          .  ,          . 

time  flow    on    evenly    there    need    arise    no 

change  in  life,  adaptation  being  once 
established.  If  space  were  absolutely  uniform  without 
barriers  or  variation  of  conditions,  life  would  flow  on 
as  uniformly.  Where  there  is  most  monotony  in  condi- 
tions, as  in  the  depths  of  the  sea,  there  is  least  change 
in  life,  least  formation  of  new  species,  and  least  tendency 
to  progress  through  natural  selection. 

Similar  to  geographical  isolation  in  its  nature  and 
effects  is  physiological  isolation.  This  appears  in  the  de- 
velopment, in  isolated  races,  of  antipa- 
j  ^5°  °glca  thies  which  serve  as  barriers  to  prevent 
the  interbreeding  with  allied  races  or 
species.  This  condition  among  animals  is  the  homo- 
logue  of  race  hostility  among  men.  Such  a  feeling  of 
mutual  aversion,  whether  accompanied  by  anatomical 
distinctions  or  not,  must  be  at  times  a  strong  factor  in 
the  differentiation  of  species. 

The  study  of  the  problems  of  geographical  distribu- 
tion is  possible  only  on  the  theory  of  the  derivation  of 

species.  If  we  view  all  animals  and 
Meaning  of  facts  ,  ,  .  -  .  . 

of  distribution.      PIants  as  the  results  of  sPecial  creations 

in  the  regions  assigned  to  them,  we  have, 
instead  of  laws,  only  a  jumble  of  arbitrary  and  meaning- 
less facts.  We  have  been  too  fully  accustomed  to  the 
recognition  of  law  to  believe  that  any  facts  are  arbitrary 


220  FOOT-NOTES   TO    EVOLUTION. 

and  meaningless.  We  know  no  facts  which  lie  beyond 
the  realm  of  law.  I  may  close  with  the  language  of 
Asa  Gray : 

"  When  we  gather  into  one  line  the  several  threads 
of  evidence  of  this  sort  to  which  we  have  here  barely 
alluded  we  find  that  they  lead  in  the  same  direction 
with  the  views  furnished  by  [other  lines  of  investigation]. 
Slender  indeed  each  thread  may  be,  but  they  are  mani- 
fold, and  together  they  bind  us  firmly  to  the  doctrine  of 
the  derivation  of  the  species." 


VIII. 

LATITUDE   AND   VERTEBRA. 
A  STUDY   IN   THE   EVOLUTION   OF   FISHES. 

IN  this  paper  is  given  an  account  of  a  curious  bio- 
logical problem  and  of  the  progress  which  has  been  made 
toward  its  solution.  The  discussion  may  have  a  .certain 
popular  interest  from  the  fact  that  it  is  a  type  of  many 
problems  in  the  structure  and  distribution  of  animals 
and  plants  which  seem  to  be  associated  with  the  laws  of 
evolution.  In  the  light  of  these  laws  they  may  be  more 
or  less  perfectly  solved.  On  any  other  hypothesis  than 
that  of  the  derivation  of  species  the  solution  of  the 
present  problem,  for  example,  would  be  impossible.  On 
the  hypothesis  of  special  creation  a  solution  would  be 
not  only  impossible  but  inconceivable. 

It  has  been  known  for  some  years  that  in  several 
groups   of   fishes  (wrasse   fishes,  flounders,  and    "rock 
cod,"  for  example)  those  species  which 
Northern  fishes     inhabit  northern  waters  have  more  ver- 
have  most  ,  ,  ,  ..... 

vertebra  tebrse  than  those   living  in  the  tropics. 

Certain  arctic  flounders,  for  example, 
have  sixty  vertebrae ;  tropical  flounders  have,  on  the 
average,  thirty.  The  significance  of  this  fact  is  the 
problem  at  issue.  In  science  it  is  assumed  that  all  facts 
have  significance,  else  they  would  not  exist.  It  becomes 
necessary,  then,  to  find  out  first  just  what  the  facts  are 
in  this  regard. 

221 


222  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

Going  through  the  various  groups  of  non-migratory 
marine  fishes  we  find  that  such  relations  are  common. 
In  almost  every  group  the  number  of  vertebrae  grows 
smaller  as  we  approach  the  equator,  and  grows  larger 
again  as  we  pass  into  southern  latitudes. 

It  would  be  tedious  to  show  this  here  by  statistical 
tables,  but  the  value  of  generalization  in  science  de- 
pends on  such  evidence.  This  proof  I  have  elsewhere* 
given  in  detail.  Suffice  it  to  say  that,  taking  an  average 
netful  of  fishes  of  different  kinds  at  different  places 
along  the  coast,  the  variation  would  be  evident.  At 
Point  Barrow  or  Cape  Farewell  or  North  Cape  a  seine- 
ful  of  fishes  would  perhaps  average  eighty  vertebrse 
each,  the  body  lengthened  to  make  room  for  them ;  at 
Sitka  or  St.  Johns  or  Bergen,  perhaps,  sixty  vertebrae ; 
at  San  Francisco  or  New  York  or  St.  Malo,  thirty-five ; 
at  Mazatlan  or  Pensacola  or  Naples,  twenty-eight;  and 
at  Panama  or  Havana  or  Sierra  Leone,  twenty-five. 
Under  the  equator  the  usual  number  of  vertebrae  in 
shore  fishes  is  twenty-four.  Outside  the  tropics  this 
number  is  the  exception.  North  of  Cape  Cod  it  is  virtu- 
ally unknown. 

The  next  question  which  arises  is  whether  we  can 
find  other  conditions  that  may  affect  these   numbers. 
These  readily  appear.    Fresh-water  fishes 
Fewest  vertebrae    haye  in  general  more  vertebne  than  salt- 
in  shore  fishes  of  _   ,  . 

the  tro  ics  water  fishes  of  the  same  group.     Deep- 

sea  fishes  have  more  vertebrae  than  fishes 
of  shallow  waters.  Pelagic  fishes  and  free-swimming 
fishes  have  more  than  those  which  live  along  the  shores, 

*  In  a  more  technical  paper  on  this  subject  entitled  Relations 
of  Temperature  to  Vertebrae  among  Fishes,  published  in  the  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  United  States  National  Museum  for  1891,  pp.  107- 
120.  Still  fuller  details  are  given  in  a  paper  contained  in  the 
Wilder  Quarter-Century  Book,  1893. 


LATITUDE   AND   VERTEBRAE. 


223 


and  more  than  localized  or  non-migratory  forms.*  The 
extinct  fishes  of  earlier  geological  periods  had  more  ver- 
tebrae than  the  corresponding  modern  forms  which  are 
regarded  as  their  descendants.  To  each  of  these  gener- 
alizations there  are  occasional  partial  exceptions,  but  not 
such  as  to  invalidate  the  rule. 

All  these  effects  should  be  referable  to  the  same 
group  of  causes.  They  may,  in  fact,  be  combined  in 
one  statement.  All  other  fishes  have  a  larger  number 
of  vertebrae  than  the  marine  shore  fishes  of  the  tropics. 
The  cause  of  the  reduction  in  numbers  of  vertebrae  must 
therefore  be  sought  in  conditions  peculiar  to  the  tropical 
seas.  If  the  retention  of  the  primitive  large  number  is 
in  any  case  a  phase  of  degeneration,  the  cause  of  such 
degeneration  must  be  sought  in  the  colder  seas,  in  the 
rivers,  and  in  oceanic  abysses.  What  have  these  waters 

*  This  is  especially  true  among  those  fishes  which  swim  for 
long  distances,  as,  for  example,  many  of  the  mackerel  family. 
Among  such  there  is  often  found  a  high  grade  of  muscular  power, 
or  even  of  activity,  associated  with  a  large  number  of  vertebrae, 
these  vertebra  being  individually  small  and  little  differentiated. 
For  long-continued  muscular  action  of  a  uniform  kind  there  would 
be  perhaps  an  advantage  in  the  low  development  of  the  vertebral 
column.  For  muscular  alertness,  moving  short  distances  with 
great  speed,  the  action  of  a  fish  constantly  on  its  guard  against 
enemies  or  watching  for  its  prey,  the  advantage  would  be  on  the 
side  of  few  vertebrae.  There  is  often  a  correlation  between  the 
freeswimming  habit  and  slenderness  and  suppleness  of  body, 
which  again  is  often  dependent  on  an  increase  in  numbers  of  the 
vertebral  segments.  These  correlations  appear  as  a  disturbing 
element  in  the  problem  rather  than  as  furnishing  a  clew  to  its 
solution.  In  some  groups  of  fresh-water  fishes  there  is  a  reduc- 
tion in  numbers  of  vertebrae,  not  associated  with  any  degree  of 
specialization  of  the  individual  bone,  but  correlated  with  simple 
reduction  in  size  of  body.  This  is  apparently  a  phenomenon  of 
degeneration,  a  survival  of  dwarfs  where  conditions  are  unfavor- 
able in  full  growth. 
16 


224 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


in  common  that  the  coral  reefs,  rocky  islands,  and  tide 
pools  of  the  tropics  have  not  ? 


FIG.  16. — Skeleton  of  the  spotted  greenling  (Hexagrammos  dccagram- 
mus).  From  nature,  by  W.  S.  Atkinson.  A  northern  fish,  with 
vertebrae  numerous  and  small. 

In  this  connection  we  are  to  remember  that  the  fewer 
vertebrae  indicates  generally  the   higher   rank.     When 

vertebras  are  few  in  number,  as  a  rule 
Fewer  vertebrae      eacn  Qne  jg  iarorer>      jts  structure  is  more 
indicates  greater  ....  .  . 

specialization.        complicated,  its  appendages  are  larger 

and  more  useful,  and  the  fins  with  which 
it  is  connected  are  better  developed.  In  other  words, 
the  tropical  fish  is  more  intensely  and  compactly  a  fish, 


FIG.  17. — Skeleton  of  the  scarlet  rock-fish  (Sebastodes  mttiiatus).  From 
nature,  by  W.  S.  Atkinson.  A  species  of  temperate  waters  ;  the 
vertebrae  in  moderate  number. 

with  a  better  fish  equipment,  and  in  all  ways  better  fitted 
for  the  business  of  a  fish,  especially  for  that  of  a  fish  that 
stays  at  home. 


LATITUDE   AND   VERTEBRA. 


225 


In  my  view  the  reduction  in  number  and  increase  of 
importance  of  the  individual  vertebrae  are  simply  part 
of  a  process  we  may  call  ichthyization,  the  work  of 
making  a  better  fish.  Not  a  better  fish  for  man's  pur- 
poses— for  Nature  does  not  care  for  man's  purposes — 
but  a  better  fish  for  the  purposes  of  a  fish.  The  com- 
petition in  the  struggle  for  existence  is  the  essential 
cause  of  the  change.  In  the  centre  of  competition  no 
species  can  afford  to  be  handicapped  by  a  weak  back- 


FlG.  18. — Skeleton  of  angel  fish  (Angelickthys  ciliaris).  From  nature, 
by  W.  S.  Atkinson.  A  tropical  species  ;  the  vertebrae  few  and 
large. 

bone  and  redundant  vertebrae.  Those  who  are  thus 
weighted  can  not  hold  their  own.  They  must  change  or 
perish. 

The  influence  of  cold,  darkness,  monotony,  and  iso- 
lation is  to  limit  the  struggle  for  existence,  and  there- 
fore to  prevent  its  changes,  preserving 
Coral  reefs  the      through  the  conservation  of  heredity  the 
centre  of  fish  J 

competition  more  remote  ancestral  conditions,  even 

though  they  carry  with  them  disadvan- 
tages and  deficiencies.  The  conditions  most  favourable 
to  fish  life  are  among  the  rocks  and  reefs  of  the  tropical 
seas.  About  the  coral  reefs  is  the  centre  of  fish  compe- 
tition. A  coral  archipelago  is  the  Paris  of  fishes.  In 
such  regions  is  the  greatest  variety  of  surroundings,  and 


226  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

therefore  the  greatest  number  of  possible  adjustments. 
The  struggle  is  between  fish  and  fish,  not  between  fishes 
and  hard  conditions  of  life.  No  form  is  excluded  from 
the  competition.  Cold,  darkness,  and  foul  water  do  not 
shut  out  competitors,  nor  does  any  evil  influence  sap  the 
strength.  The  heat  of  the  tropics  does  not  make  the 
water  hot.  It  is  never  sultry  nor  laden  with  malaria. 
The  influence  of  tropical  heat  on  land  animals  is  often 
to  destroy  vitality  and  check  activity.  It  is  not  so  in 
the  sea. 

From  conditions  otherwise  favourable  in  arctic  re- 
gions the  majority  of  competitors  are  excluded  by  their 
inability  to  bear  the  cold.  River  life  is  life  in  isolation. 
To  aquatic  animals  river  life  has  the  same  limitations 
that  island  life  has  to  the  animals  of  the  land.  The 
oceanic  islands  are  far  behind  the  continents  in  the  pro- 
cess of  evolution.  In  like  manner  the  rivers  are  ages 
behind  the  seas. 

Therefore  the  influences  which  serve  as  a  whole  to 
intensify  fish  life,  and  tend  to  rid  the  fish  of  every  char- 
acter or  structure  it  can  not  "  use  in  its  business,"  are 
most  effective  along  the  shores  of  the  tropics.  One 
phase  of  this  is  the  reduction  in  numbers  of  vertebrae,  or, 
more  accurately,  the  increase  of  stress  on  each  individual 
bone. 

Conversely,  as  the  causes  of  these  changes  are  still 
in  operation,  we  should  find  that  in  cold  waters,  deep 
waters,  dark  waters,  fresh  waters,  inclosed  waters,  and 
in  the  waters  of  past  geological  epochs,  the  process 
would  be  less  complete,  the  numbers  of  vertebras  would 
be  larger,  while  the  individual  vertebrae  remain  smaller, 
less  complete,  and  less  perfectly  ossified. 

This,  in  a  general  way,  is  precisely  what  we  do 
find  in  examining  the  skeletons  of  a  large  variety  of 
fishes. 


LATITUDE   AND   VERTEBRA. 


227 


Another  phase  is  the  process  of  cephalization,  the  pro- 
cess by  which  the  head  becomes  emphasized  and  the 
shoulder  bones  and  other  structures  be- 
Cephalization        CQme  connected  wjth  it  or  subordinated 

n  to  il>     Sti11  another  is  the  reduction  and 

change  of  the  swim  bladder  and  its  utter 
loss  of  the  function  of  lung  or  breathing  organ  which  it 
occupied  in  the  ganoid  ancestors  of  modern  fishes. 

The  life  of  the  tropics,  so  far  as  fishes  are  concerned, 
offers  many  analogies  to  the  life  of  cities,  viewed  from 
the  standpoint  of  human   development. 
Analogy  of  the        Jn    the   dties    in    general    the   conditions 
tropical  waters  ,  .     ,.    .,       .        .  ,          , 

to  cities  of  men  individual  existence  for  the  man  are 

most  easy,  but  there  also  competition  of 
life  is  most  severe.  The  struggle  for  existence  is  not  a 
struggle  with  the  forces  and  conditions  of  Nature.  It  is 
not  a  struggle  with  wild  beasts,  unbroken  forests,  or 
stubborn  soil,  but  a  competition  between  man  and  man 
for  the  opportunity  of  living. 

It  is  in  the  city  where  the  influences  which  tend  to 
modernization  and  concentration  of  the  characters  of 
the  species  go  on  most  rapidly.  It  is  adaptation  or 
death  to  each  individual  in  the  city :  every  quality  not 
directly  useful  tends  to  become  lost  or  atrophied. 

Conversely,  it  is  in  the  "  backwoods,"  the  region 
farthest  from  human  conflicts,  where  primitive  customs, 
antiquated  peculiarities,  and  useless  traits  are  longest 
and  most  persistently  retained.  The  life  of  the  "back- 
woods "  may  be  not  less  active  or  vigorous,  but  it  will 
lack  specialization.  It  is  from  the  unused  possibilities 
of  the  "  backwoods "  that  the  progress  of  the  future 
comes.  The  high  specialization  of  favoured  regions 
unfits  its  subjects  for  life  under  changed  conditions. 
The  loss  of  muscular  power  is  often  one  of  the  results 
of  skeletal  specialization. 


228  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

The  coral  reef  is  the  metropolis  of  the  fish.  The 
deep  sea,  the  arctic  sea,  and  the  isolated  rivers — these 
are  the  ichthyological  backwoods. 

An  exception  to  the  general  rule  in  regard  to  the 
numbers  of  vertebrae  is  found  in  the  case  of  the  eel. 

Eels  inhabit  nearly  all  seas,  and  every- 
Ongin  of  eels.  .  _,. 

where  they  have  many  vertebrae.      1  he 

eels  of  the  tropics  are  at  once  more  specialized  and  more 
degraded.  They  are  better  eels  than  those  of  northern 
regions,  but,  as  the  eel  is  a  degraded  type,  they  have 
gone  further  in  the  loss  of  structures  in  which  this  de- 
generation consists. 

It  is  not  well  to  push  this  analogy  too  far,  but  per- 
haps we  can  find  in  the  comparison  of  the  tropics  and 
the  cities  some  suggestion  as  to  the  development  of 
the  eel. 

In  the  city  there  is  always  a  class  which  follows  in 
no  degree  the  general  line  of  development.  Its  mem- 
bers are  specialized  in  a  wholly  different  way.  By  this 
means  they  take  to  themselves  a  field  which  others  have 
neglected,  making  up  in  low  cunning  what  they  lack  in 
humanity  or  intelligence. 

Thus,  among  the  fishes,  we  have  in  the  regions  of 
closest  competition  this  degenerate  and  non-fishlike 
type,  lurking  in  holes  among  the  rocks,  or  creeping  in 
the  sand  ;  thieves  and  scavengers  among  fishes.  The 
eels  thus  fill  a  place  otherwise  left  unfilled.  In  their 
way  they  are  perfectly  adapted  to  the  lives  they  lead. 
A  multiplicity  of  vertebral  joints  is  useless  to  the  typical 
fish,  but  to  the  eel,  strength  and  suppleness  are  every- 
thing. No  armature  of  fin  or  scale  or  bone  is  so  de- 
sirable as  its  power  of  escaping  through  the  smallest 
opening. 


IX. 

EVOLUTION   OF   FOSSIL   CEPHALOPODA. 
BY  JAMES  PERRIN  SMITH. 

MOST  of  the  paleontologic  contributions  to  the  evi- 
dence of  evolution  were  gathered  before   the  time  of 
Darwin,  and  are  therefore  all  the  more 
General  evidence   trustworthy  because  the  naturalists  that 
of  paleontology. 

gathered  them  were   not   evolutionists. 

It  is  indeed  remarkable  that  their  classifications  have 
been  so  little  changed  by  the  introduction  of  the  theory 
of  evolution  into  the  study  of  biology.  Since  this  is  the 
case  the  paleontologic  record  ought  to  show  the  order 
of  appearance  of  genera  in  time,  and  their  genetic  rela- 
tionship. It  does  do  this  in  a  general  way.  Thus  in 
the  echinoderms  we  have  the  cystoids,  apparently  the 
primitive  stock,  beginning  in  the  Cambrian  and  disap- 
pearing in  the  Carboniferous;  the  blastoids,  somewhat 
higher,  began  in  the  Upper  Silurian  and  disappeared  in 
the  Carboniferous;  the  true  crinoids,  or  sea  lilies,  began 
in  the  Lower  Silurian  and  survived  until  the  present  day. 
Asteroids  we  know  from  the  Cambrian  on,  and  echinoids, 
or  sea  urchins,  from  the  Lower  Silurian  until  now. 

Although  their  succession  in  time  suggests  genetic 
relationships,  the  crinoids,  and  especially  the  cystoids, 
being  the  most  primitive  type,  the  first  known  of  the 
three  great  groups  are  apparently  as  widely  separated 
from  each  other  as  they  now  are.  Either  they  are  par- 

229 


230 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


allel  developments  from  a  common  stock,  or  else  the 
separation  from  the  oldest  stock  of  crinoids  took  place 
in  the  misty  pre-Cambrian  time. 

The  vertebrates,  too,  show  evolution  in  a  general 
way  in  the  appearance  of  types,  for  we  find  fishes  from 
the  Lower  Silurian  on ;  at  first  only  placoderms,  bony- 
plated  fishes,  then  upward  by  degrees  to  the  teleosts 
(scale  fish  with  bony  skeleton),  which  began  in  the  Up- 
per Jura.  Amphibians  had  branched  off  from  the  fish 
stock  by  the  end  of  the  Devonian,  genuine  reptiles  from 
the  amphibians  by  the  end  of  Carboniferous  time.  Mam- 
mals appeared  first  in  the  Trias,  probably  as  descendants 
from  the  amphibian  stock.  The  first  birds  we  find  in 
the  Upper  Jura  as  transitions  from  reptiles. 

The  method  usedsby  most  naturalists  in  the  study  of 
phylogeny  has  been  a  comparison  of  a  series  of  adults 
from  successive  geologic  horizons,  together  with  a  study 
of  present  and  past  distribution  and  migration  of  ani- 
mals. The  results  of  this  are  seen  in  all  our  classifica- 
tion and  in  all  family  trees.  Such  work  as  Marsh's 
origin  of  the  horse,  Cope's  phylogeny  of  the  reptiles, 
Baur's  contributions  to  the  origin  of  the  mammals,  and 
many  others,  abundantly  justify  this  method  of  research. 

But  interesting  and  valuable  as  are  the  investigations 
in  phylogeny  made  in  this  way,  such  genealogies  can 
not,  as  a  matter  of  course,  be  more  than  approximate, 
for  we  have  nowhere  a  uniform  succession  of  rocks,  and 
nowhere  an  unbroken  genetic  series.  Each  region  has 
often  changed,  belonging  now  to  one  faunal  province, 
now  to  another,  each  great  change  in  faunal  geography 
showing  some  physiographic  revolution  here  or  else- 
where. Thus  the  local  series  is  broken  and  filled  out 
from  other  regions,  species  usually  being  classed  to- 
gether because  of  mere  resemblance,  while  their  real  re- 
lationship is  unknown. 


EVOLUTION   OF   FOSSIL   CEPHALOPODA.         231 

If  the  geologic  record  is  incomplete,  the  biologic 
record  is  still  more  so  ;  the  beginnings  of  things  are 

lacking  just  where  we  should  most  like 
Incompleteness  tQ  gee  them  Either  most  Q£  the  branch. 

of  the  record.  .  .  .        . 

ing  stocks  were  incapable  of  being  pre- 
served as  fossils,  or  we  have  yet  to  find  the  strata  in 
which  they  may  be  preserved.  In  the  Cambrian  the 
divergence  was  already  complete,  all  the  subkingdoms 
were  present  except  the  vertebrates,  and  they,  too, 
probably  existed  at  that  time,  for  highly  specialized 
placoderm  fishes  have  been  found  in  the  Lower  Silurian. 
The  brachiopods  had  already  branched  out  into  articu- 
lates and  inarticulates,  the  molluscs  into  pelecypods, 
gastropods,  and  cephalopods.  The  crustaceans  were 
already  represented  by  phyllocarids,  trilobites,  and 
ostracods,  widely  divergent  types.  Even  at  the  base  of 
the  Cambrian  beds  all  these  animals,  especially  the 
trilobites,  went  through  many  larval  changes  before  they 
reached  maturity,  thus  indicating  a  long  family  history 
of  numerous  pre-existing  unknown  ancestral  genera. 

LAW  OF  ACCELERATION  OF  DEVELOPMENT. 

Since  the  geologic  record  is  so  badly  broken,  and 
since  modern  faunas  and  floras  are  but  the  topmost 
branches  of  a  tree  whose  stock  is  only  partly  known,  the 
early  naturalists  were  merely  groping  in  the  dark  in 
their  efforts  to  get  a  natural  classification.  There  was, 
however,  a  glimmer  of  light,  although  scarcely  heeded. 
No  one  man  seems  to  have  been  the  discoverer  of  the 
law  of  acceleration  of  development,  but,  like  the  idea  of 
evolution,  it  was  in  the  air,  and  disclosed  itself  in 
various  ways  to  the  prophetic  vision  of  seekers  after 
truth.  J.  F.  Meckel,*  a  German  naturalist,  seems  to 
have  been  the  first  to  give  scientific  expression  to  the 

*  Syst.  Vergl.  Anat.,  i,  Theil,  Halle,  1821. 


232 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


biogenetic  law,  in  his  formula,  "  Gleichung  zwischen  der 
Entwicklung  des  Embryo  und  der  Thierreihe,"  com- 
parison of  development  of  the  embryo  ivith  the  race  of  ani- 
mals. But  Louis  Agassiz,  although  riot  the  discoverer, 
was  undoubtedly  the  first  to  use  the  law  as  an  aid  in 
the  systematic  study  of  biology.  While  he  regarded  the 
various  genera,  not  as  ancestors  and  descendants,  but 
as  progressive  steps  in  creation,  still  he  saw  the  analogy 
between  the  stages  of  growth  of  the  individual  and 
these  progressive  steps.  It  was  reserved  for  Alpheus 
Hyatt  to  formulate  the  law  and  to  strengthen  theory 
with  practical  examples  based  on  the  study  of  cephalo- 
pods.*  In  his  later  papers  Professor  Hyatt  has  given  a 
more  exact  and  comprehensive  definition  of  the  law 
of  acceleration  or  tachygenesis :  "  All  modifications  and 
variations  in  progressive  'series  tend  to  appear  first  in 
the  adolescent  or  adult  stages  of  growth,  and  then  to  be 
inherited  in  successive  descendants  at  earlier  and  earlier 
stages,  according  to  the  law  of  acceleration,  until  they 
either  become  embryonic  or  are  crowded  out  of  the 
organization  and  replaced  in  the  development  by  charac- 
teristics of  later  origin."  f  A  still  more  definite  state- 
ment by  the  same  author  is  the  following :  "  The  sub- 
stages  of  development  in  ontogeny  are  the  bearers  of 
distal  ancestral  characters  in  inverse  proportion  and  of 
proximal  ancestral  characters  in  direct  proportion  to  their 
removal  in  time  and  position  from  the  protoconch  or 
last  embryonic  stage."  J  Since  Hyatt's  first  paper  the 

*  A.  Hyatt.  Mem.  Boston  Soc.  Nat.  Hist.,  vol.  i,  i866-'67  ; 
and  Proc.  Boston  Soc.  Nat.  Hist.,  vol.  i,  1866,  Parallelisms  of  In- 
dividual and  Order  among  the  Tetrabranchiate  Mollusks. 

f  A.  Hyatt.  Smithsonian  Contribution  to  Knowledge,  No. 
673,  Genesis  of  the  Arietida?,  Preface,  p.  ix. 

\  Proc.  Am.  Phil.  Soc.,  vol.  xxxii.  No.  143,  A.  Hyatt,  Phy- 
logeny  of  an  Acquired  Characteristic,  p.  405. 


EVOLUTION   OF   FOSSIL   CEPHALOPODA. 


233 


law  has  been  rediscovered  and  renamed  by  Haeckel,* 
"das  biogenetische  Grundgesetz  "  and  by  Wurtenber- 
ger.f  But  these  naturalists,  instead  of  adding  anything 
to  Hyatt's  definition,  have  failed  to  reach  its  clearness 
and  simplicity.  The  only  real  addition  that  has  been 
made  is  Cope's  idea  of  retardation, J  by  which  is  ex- 
plained the  separation  in  the  ontogeny  of  the  descend- 
ant of  characters  that  occurred  simultaneously  in  the 
ancestor.  Cope  says :  "  The  acceleration  in  the  assump- 
tion of  a  character,  progressing  more  rapidly  than  the 
same  in  another  character,  must  soon  produce,  in  a  type 
whose  stages  were  once  the  exact  parallel  of  a  perma- 
nent lower  form,  the  condition  of  inexact  parallelism. 
As  all  the  more  comprehensive  groups  present  this  re- 
lation to  each  other,  we  are  compelled  to  believe  that 
acceleration  has  been  the  principle  of  their  successive 
evolution  during  the  long  ages  of  geologic  time.  Each 
type  has,  however,  its  day  of  supremacy  and  perfection 
of  organism,  and  a  retrogression  in  these  respects  has 
succeeded.  This  has  no  doubt  followed  a  law  the  re- 
verse of  acceleration,  which  has  been  called  retardation. 
By  the  increasing  slowness  of  the  growth  of  the  indi- 
viduals of  a  genus,  and  later  and  later  assumption  of  the 
characters  of  the  latter,  they  would  be  successively 
lost."  * 

By  a  proper  application  of  the  law  of  acceleration  as 
denned  by  Hyatt  and  modified  by  Cope,  all  the  facts  of 
biology  may  be  explained ;  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
"falsification  of  the  record."  But  as  yet  the  law  has 
had  no  great  effect  in  classification,  for  most  paleon- 

*  Morphologic  der  Organismen,  vol.  ii ;  and  Anthropogenic, 
1874. 

f  Ausland,  1873,  and  Studien  iiber  die  Stammesgeschichte  der 
Ammoniten,  1880. 

J  Origin  of  the  Fittest.  *  Origin  of  the  Fittest,  p.  142. 


234  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

tologists  have  not  approached  their  work  from  the 
biologic  side,  and  biologists  have  been  equally  neglect- 
ful of  the  results  attained  by  paleontology.  A  distin- 
guished zoologist  once  said  to  the  writer,  on  being  shown 
an  ontogenetic  series  of  ammonites,  and  the  conclusions 
reached,  "  It  is  all  beautiful,  but  almost  too  good  to  be 
true."  In  paleontology  it  is  especially  true  that  a  natu- 
ralist may  be  a  specialist  in  the  fauna  of  one  age,  and 
know  little  of  that  of  another.  Hence  the  animals  of 
various  periods  have  been  classified  according  to  vary- 
ing standards,  all  artificial.  The  only  cure  for  these 
discrepancies  is  study  of  ontogeny,  and  comparison 
of  stages  of  growth  of  the  individual  with  ancestral 
genera.  This  will  also  prevent  the  description  of  sup- 
posedly new  genera  and  species  based  on  immature 
specimens,  as  has  so  often  been  done.  The  writer  re- 
members once  collecting  numerous  Ceratites  in  the  Kar- 
nic  limestone  of  the  California  Trias,  much  to  his  aston- 
ishment, for  they  ought  not  to  occur  so  high  up.  He 
afterward  found,  however,  that  they  were  not  adults, 
but  adolescent  ceratitic  stages  of  Arpadites ;  a  similar 
case  was  the  finding  in  the  same  horizon  a  Tirolites 
above  its  proper  range,  but  it  turned  out  to  be  the 
young  of  a  Trachyceras  that  persisted  unusually  long  in 
the  Tirolites  stage.  At  that  time  there  was  nothing  in 
the  description  of  these  genera  or  any  of  their  species 
to  guide  one,  and  so  their  ontogeny  had  to  be  worked 
out  independently.  But  there  is  nothing  in  the  descrip- 
tion of  almost  any  fossil  genera  and  species  to  prevent 
just  such  mistakes,  and  they  are  constantly  being  made. 
By  careful  study  of  ontogeny  in  comparison  with 
phylogeny  the  paleontologist  can  correlate  correctly 
fossil  beds  where  even  all  the  genera  and  species  are 
new;  he  can  even  prophesy  concerning  the  occurrence 
of  unknown  genera  in  certain  horizons  when  he  finds 


EVOLUTION   OF   FOSSIL   CEPHALOPODA. 


235 


their  minute  counterparts  in  youthful  stages  of  later 
forms;  in  fact,  he  could  often  furnish  just  as  exact  a 
description  of  the  form  as  if  he  had  the  adult  genus 
before  him. 

NOMENCLATURE  OF  STAGES  OF  GROWTH. 

In  order  to  correlate  ontogenetic  stages  with  the 
generic  changes  seen  in  the  development  of  the  race  it 
is  necessary  to  have  an  exact  scientific  nomenclature. 
The  most  satisfactory  is  that  given  by  Professor  Hyatt 
in  Phylogeny  of  an  Acquired  Characteristic.* 

TABLE  OF  ONTOGENETIC  STAGES. 


Stages. 

Stages. 

Substages. 

Comparison  with  phylogen 

Embryonic  (i)  Embryonic 

f  Protembryo 

Phylembryonic  ^ 

I    Mesembryo 

J    Metembryo 

[ 

1    Neoembryo 

Typembryo 

V 

[  Phylembryo  t 

i 

a 

Larval 

(2)  Nepionic 

{Ananepionic 

Q« 

Metanepionic 

}>  Phylonepionic 

Paranepionic 

1 

Adolescent  (3)  Neanic 

fAnaneanic 

I 

Metaneanic 

f-  Phyloneanic 

Paraneanic 

1 

Adult 

(4)  Ephebic 

fAnephebic 
\  Metephebic 

I                                 )    w 
[  Phylephebic        [•  B 

[  Parephebic 

1                                )  < 

Senile 

(5)  Gerontic 

fAnagerontic 

\                               )    & 

-I  Metagerontic 

1-  Phylogerontic     V  ™ 

[  Paragerontic 

I                    )(£ 

With  the  embryonic  stage  the  paleontologist  can  do 
nothing,  except  the  very  last  substage  or  phylembryo, 
when  the  Mollusca,  Brachiopoda,  and  other  groups  be- 
gin to  secrete  their  shells ;  but  all  the  later  stages  are 
easily  accessible  in  well-preserved  material. 

The    best    example   of    correlation    of    ontogenetic 

*  Proc.  Am.  Phil.  Soc.,  vol.  xxxii,  No.  143,  pp.  391  and  397. 


236  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

stages  with  phylogeny  is  the  genealogy  of  Medlicottia, 
worked  out  by  Karpinsky,*  who  has  shown  that  the  Car- 
boniferous genus  Pronorites  goes  through  the  following 
stages :  latisellate  protoconch,  phylembryonic ;  with 
the  second  suture  it  reaches  the  Anarcestes  stage,  nepi- 
onic ;  about  the  end  of  the  first  revolution  the  Ibergice- 
ras  stage  begins,  paranepionic ;  second  revolution  shows 
the  Paraprolecanites  stage,  neanic;  on  the  third  whorl 
begins  the  Pronorites  stage,  adult. f  Thus  with  regard 
to  Pronorites  the  genus  Anarcestes  is  phylonepionic, 
Ibergiceras  is  phyloparanepionic,  Paraprolecanites  is  phy- 
loneanic.  In  the  same  work  Karpinsky  has  shown  that 
Medlicottia  is  a  direct  descendant  of  Pronorites,  and  in 
its  development  goes  through  all  the  stages  of  the  ances- 
tral genus  and  adds  several  more.  The  first  revolution 
of  Medlicottia  could  not  be  studied,  but  on  the  second 
revolution  was  seen  the  Ibergiceras  stage,  metanepionic ; 
on  the  third  whorl  the  Paraprolecanites  stage,  paranepi- 
onic ;  at  the  end  of  the  third  whorl  the  Pronorites  stage, 
beginning  of  the  neanic;  on  the  fourth  whorl  the 
Sicanites  stage,  end  of  the  neanic ;  on  the  fifth  whorl  the 
Promedlicottia  stage,  anephebic ;  and  lastly,  at  end  of  the 
fifth  whorl,  Medliccttia,  adult  in  characteristics,  though 
not  yet  in  size. 

PALEONTOGENY. 

Just  as  biologists  are  turning  more  and  more  to  the 
study  of  morphology  and  ontogeny,  so  the  paleontolo- 
gist is  striving  to  find  out  the  life-his- 
General  Qf  fossil  species — paleontogeny.    It 

statement.  ,  . 

will  surprise  many  to  learn  that  this  can 

be  done,  but  in  reality  the  development  of  many  fossil 

*  Mem.  Acad.  Imper.  Sci.  St.  Petersburg,  vii  ser.,  tome  xxxvii, 
No.  2,  Ammoneen  der  Artinsk-Stufe. 
f  See  Plate  IV,  Fig.  9. 


EVOLUTION   OF   FOSSIL   CEPHALOPODA. 


237 


species  is  known  more  accurately  than  that  of  most  liv- 
ing forms. 

Vertebrates  are  out  of  the  question  for  this  sort  of 
work,  being  too  highly  accelerated  in  their  development ; 
the  stages  that  might  be  useful  in  phylogenetic  study 
are  gone  through  before  the  animal  is  capable  of  being 
preserved  as  a  fossil.  In  the  ccelenterates  the  relations 
between  Cenozoic  and  Paleozoic  forms  are  not  under- 
stood, and  the  ontogeny  of  the  group  does  not  show 
changes  that  are  striking  enough  to  throw  much  light  on 
their  history.  In  the  Echinodermata  poor  preservation 
of  fossil  forms,  especially  of  the  young,  makes  ontogen- 
etic  study  very  difficult,  but  Dr.  R.  T.  Jackson  *  has 
been  able,  by  a  study  of  development  of  plates  of  the 
sea  urchins,  to  throw  some  light  on  the  phylogeny  of 
the  group.  The  only  crinoid  of  which  the  development 
is  known  is  Antedon,  which,  unlike  all  the  others,  is  free- 
swimming  when  adult,  although  attached  by  a  jointed 
stem  as  a  larva.  The  investigations  of  Wyville  Thom- 
son, Bury,  and  others,  show  that  the  embryo  is  like  the 
larva  of  certain  annelid  worms ;  after  a  short  free  stage 
this  embryo  settles  down,  attaches  itself  to  some  object, 
begins  to  secrete  a  stem  and  jointed  calyx,  or  body  cup. 
In  this  stage  it  is  like  the  Ichthyocrinoidea  of  the  Paleo- 
zoic. Then  certain  of  the  plates  are  resorbed,  the  char- 
acter of  the  jointed  stem  changed,  and  the  animal  is  like 
Pentacrinus  of  the  Mesozoic  and  Cenozoic.  At  the  end 
of  its  larval  period  Antedon  frees  itself  from  its  fixed 
position,  loses  all  resemblance  to  Pentacrinus,  and  for 
the  rest  of  its  life  is  a  free-swimming  pelagic  form. 

The  most  satisfactory  groups  for  this  work  are  the 
Brachiopoda,  the  Mollusca,  and  the  Crustacea. 

*  Studies  of  Palseechinoidea.  Bull.  Geol.  Soc.  Amer.,  vol.  vii, 
pp.  171-254- 


238  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

Brachiopoda. — The  brachiopods  have  this  decided 
advantage,  that  they  can  be  hatched  in  marine  labora- 
tories, and  the  various  stages  studied  from  the  egg  up, 
as  has  been  done  by  Brooks,  Kovalevski,  Lacaze-Du- 
thiers,  Morse,  and  Shipley,  with  the  genera  Cistella,  Glot- 
ttdia,  Lacazella,  Liothyrina,  and  Terebratulina.  But  it 
was  reserved  for  the  paleontologists  Beecher,  J.  M. 
Clarke,  and  Schuchert  to  correlate  the  ontogeny  of  liv- 
ing forms  with  ancestral  genera,  and  give  a  biogenetic 
classification  of  the  Brachiopoda  *  based  on  ontogenetic 
study. 

In  living  specimens  the  subdivisions  of  the  embryonic 
stage,  protembryo,  mesembryo,  neoembryo,  and  typem- 
bryo  may  easily  be  made  out,  but  since  these  are  shell- 
less  the  work  of  the  paleontologist  begins  with  the  phyl- 
embryonic  substage,  when  the  shell  gland  secretes  the 
protegulum.  From  this  upward  the  paleontologist 
works  on  equal  terms  with  the  zoologist,  for  the  suc- 
ceeding stages  are  capable  of  preservation,  and  may  be 
compared  with  ancestral  genera.  Beecher  and  Schu- 
chert f  have  demonstrated  that  the  Ancylobranchia  (Tere- 
bratuloids)  all  go  through  a  primitive  Centronelliform 
stage,  and  that  the  Helicopegmata  (spire-bearers)  do  the 
same,  and  are  for  a  while  genuine  Ancylobranchia.  Schu- 
chert's  classification  of  the  Brachiopoda,  published  in 
Eastman's  translation  of  Zittel's  Text-Book  of  Paleontol- 


*  For  correlation  of  stages  of  growth  with  generic  changes, 
and  for  the  literature  on  ontogeny  and  phylogeny  of  Brachiopoda, 
see  papers  by  Dr.  C.  E.  Beecher,  Amer.  Jour.  Sci.,  vol.  xliv,  Au- 
gust, 1892,  Development  of  Brachiopoda,  Part  II  ;  and  Trans. 
Connecticut  Acad.  Sci.,  vol.  ix,  March,  1893,  Revision  of  the 
Families  of  Loop-bearing  Brachiopoda  ;  and  The  Development 
of  Terebratalia  Obsoleta  Dall. 

f  Proc.  Biol.  Soc.  Washington,  vol.  viii,  July  13,  1893.  Devel- 
opment of  the  Brachial  Supports  in  Dielasma  and  Zygospira. 


EVOLUTION   OF   FOSSIL   CEPHALOPODA. 


239 


ogy,  1896,  may  be  taken  as  strictly  biogenetic  so  far  as 
the  data  now  at  hand  make  such  a  thing  possible. 

Crustacea. — The  only  Crustacea  that  are  useful  for  the 
study  of  paleontogeny  are  the  trilobites,  and  since  they 
are  all  extinct  without  leaving  any  descendants,  mod- 
ern biology  can  give  us  little  help.  We  are  thus  to 
a  greater  extent  than  with  the  Brachiopoda  thrown  en- 
tirely on  the  ontogeny  of  fossils,  and  in  this  case,  too, 
the  various  stages  must  be  worked  out  from  separate  in- 
dividuals. Many  naturalists,  beginning  with  Barrande, 
have  worked  on  the  ontogeny  of  trilobites,  have  de- 
scribed various  stages,  sometimes  as  larvae,  sometimes 
as  adult  genera  or  species,  but  they  met  with  seemingly 
insuperable  difficulties  in  correlating  these  stages  with 
the  genealogy.  Dr.  C.  E.  Beecher,  however,  has  over- 
come these  difficulties,  presenting  his  results  in  a  recent 
paper  on  The  Larval  Stages  of  Trilobites,  *  in  which 
he  shows  that  all  trilobites  go  through  a  phylembryonic 
stage,  protaspis,  homologous  to  the  protonauplius  of  the 
higher  Crustacea.  While  no  known  genera  are  exactly 
like  the  protaspis,  still  there  are  several  that  retain 
many  of  its  features.  After  the  protaspis  stage  the  vari- 
ous groups  of  genera  develop  in  different  directions, 
but  all  go  through  larval  stages  analogous  to  generic 
changes  in  their  group.  The  protaspis  itself  of  the 
later  groups  becomes  more  complicated  by  acceleration 
of  development,  but  always  retains  its  essential  features. 
By  means  of  this  study  Dr.  Beecher  has  been  able  to 
give  the  beginning  of  a  truly  genetic  classification  of 
trilobites.f 

Mollusca. — Of  the  Mollusca  only  the  Pelecypoda  and 
the  Cephalopoda  are  of  use  to  the  student  of  paleontog- 

*  Amer.  Geol.,  vol.  xvi,  September,  1895. 

f  Amer.  Jour.  Sci.,  February  and  March,  1897.  Outline  of  a 
Natural  Classification  of  Trilobites." 


240  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

eny,  for  of  the  Gastropoda  we  have  not  as  yet  a  bioge- 
netic  classification,  and  the  larval  stages  even  of  living 
forms  have  not  been  well  studied. 

Pelecypoda. — Almost  all  that  has  been  done  in  com- 
paring genera  of  Pelecypoda  with  stages  of  growth  is  the 
work  of  Dr.  R.  T.  Jackson,*  who  has  shown  that  they 
all  go  through  a  phylembryonic  stage,  prodissoconch, 
analogous  to  the  protegulum  of  Brachiopoda,  the  proto- 
conch  of  Cephalopoda  and  Gastropoda,  and  the  protaspis 
of  trilobites.  The  prodissoconch  is  a  straight-hinged, 
two-muscled,  smooth-shelled,  bivalve  stage,  correspond- 
ing to  the  nuculoids,  the  primitive  radicle  stock  of  pele- 
cypods.  Even  the  monomyarian  oyster  goes  through 
this  dimyarian  stage. 

Cephalopoda. — The  living  dibranchiate  cephalopods, 
Octopus,  Loligo,  Spirula,  Argonauta,  and  other  naked 
forms,  are  scarcely  capable  of  preserving  their  larval 
stages  as  fossils ;  but  what  is  known  of  their  develop- 
ment points  to  a  tetrabranch  ancestry,  as,  for  example, 
the  rudimentary  second  pair  of  gills  in  some  forms. 

The  tetrabranchiate  cephalopods,  of  which  the  Nauti- 
lus is  the  only  living  representative,  are  entitled  to 
speak  with  especial  authority  on  evolution,  for  near  the 
end  of  a  long  and  varied  family  history  they  have  gone 
through  all  the  changes  of  progression  and  retrogression 
of  which  the  group  is  capable.  Also  a  much  more  per- 
fect record  has  been  kept  of  them  in  the  rocks  than  of 
any  other  class  of  animals,  so  that  practically  all  the 
sorts  of  tetrabranchs  that  existed  are  known. 

Their  remote  ancestry  is  unknown,  but  indications 
seem  to  point  to  Tentaculites  as  the  radicle  of  the  stock 
of  cephalopods,  although  this  is  no  great  help,  for  the 
systematic  position  of  Tentaculites,  a  supposed  pteropod, 

*  Mem.  Boston  Soc.  Nat.  History,  vol.  iv,  No.  8,  1890.  Phy- 
logeny  of  the  Pelecypoda. 


EXPLANATION    OF   THE    FIGURES.* 

PLATE  I. 

All  figures  on  this  plate  are  thirty  times  enlarged. 
Glyphioceras  incisum  HYATT. 

Figs,  i  and  2. — Protoconch.  I,  from  above  ;  2,  from  front. 
Diameter,  .46  mm. 

Figs.  3,  4,  and  5. — Protoconch  of  same  or  a  nearly  related  spe- 
cies from  Scott  County,  Arkansas.  3,  from  above  ;  4,  from  front ; 
5,  from  side. 

Figs.  6,  7,  and  8. — Protoconch  with  first  two  sutures.  6,  from 
above  ;  7,  from  front ;  8,  from  side. 

Figs.  9  and  10. — Larval  stage,  diameter  of  .74jpm.,  protoconch 
and  one  half  of  first  whorl,  showing  the  first  four  sutures,  from 
phylembryonic  to  the  paranepionic  substage.  9,  from  side ,  10, 
from  front. 

Figs.  II  and  12. — Larval  stage,  diameter  of  .92  mm.,  first 
whorl,  showing  first  eight  sutures,  and  transitions  from  the  me- 
tanepionic  (Anarcestes  stage),  through  paranepionic  ( 7\»-in>fenis 
stage)  to  ananeanic  (Prionoceras  stage).  11,  frorn  front ;  12,  from 
side. 

*  From  The  Development  of  Glyphioceras  and  the  Phylogeny  of  the 
Glyphioceratidje,  by  J.  P.  Smith.  Proc.  Calif.  Acad.  Sci.,  third  series,  vol. 
i,  Geology,  No.  3,  Plate  XIII. 


PLATE    I. 


O 


4. 


6. 


12. 


8. 


EVOLUTION   OF   FOSSIL  CEPHALOPODA. 


241 


is  in  doubt.  The  first  nautiloid  known  occurs  in  Cam- 
brian strata,  and  belongs  to  the  straight-shelled  Ortho- 
ceras  type,  which  is  the  radicle  of  the  group.  Endoceras, 
the  most  primitive  of  orthoceran  forms,  prevails  in  the 
Lower  Silurian,  but  here  come  in  also  curved  forms,  at 
first  sparingly,  then  later  abundantly.  The  simple  un- 
specialized  orthoceran  type  (of  which  a  member  is  fig- 
ured on  Plate  V,  Fig.  i),  survived  throughout  the  entire 
Paleozoic,  and  finally  disappeared  near  the  end  of  the 
Trias.  The  first  of  the  curved  forms  departed  but  little 
from  their  ancestral  habit,  as  shown  on  Plate  V,  Fig.  2 ; 
but  this  is  enough  to  give  it  a  new  generic  title,  Cyrto- 
ceras.  As  time  went  on  the  curving  became  more  pro- 
nounced, as  in  the  species  shown  on  Plate  V,  Fig.  3, 
still  of  the  cyrtoceran  type.  Finally  the  coil  became 
complete,  although  the  successive  whorls  did  not  touch 
the  preceding  ones;  this  stage  of  evolution  (although 
in  this  case  it  is  really  involution}  is  called  Gyroceras,  a 
species  of  which  is  figured  on  Plate  V,  Fig.  4.  Later 
still  the  successive  coils  began  to  touch  and  finally  to 
embrace  the  preceding,  and  the  culmination  of  the  nau- 
tiloids  is  reached  in  Nautilus,  as  shown  in  Plate  V,  Fig. 
5.  These  were  formerly  looked  upon  as  generic  stages, 
but  Professor  Hyatt  *  has  shown  that  there  were  many 
straight  forms  that  were  not  Orthoceras,  many  bent  forms 
besides  Cyrtoceras,  many  loosely-coiled  forms  that  were 
not  Gyroceras,  and  many  close-coiled  forms  in  addi- 
tion to  Nautilus.  In  other  words,  these  correspond- 
ing stages  of  development  were  merely  morphological 
equivalents  of  each  other  in  different  parallel  lines  of 
descent  from  the  remote  straight-shelled  parent  stock. 
Each  nautilian  form  in  its  own  development  went 
through  first  an  orthoceran  stage,  then  a  cyrtoceran, 

*  Genesis  of  the  Arietidce,  and  Phylogeny  of  an  Acquired  Char- 
acteristic. 


242  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

then  a  gyroceran,  before  taking  on  its  own  characters ; 
each  gyroceran  form  went  through  these  in  the  same 
order  up  to  its  adult  characters,  but  never  reached  the 
close-coiled  nautilian  stage ;  while  the  orthoceran  forms 
remained  in  that  stage  of  development  all  their  lives. 
These  genera  were  all  progressive,  and  are  numerous 
branches  radiating  from  a  common  stock  or  radicle,  the 
primitive  straight  nautiloid.  Thus  different  nautilian 
forms  may  resemble  each  other  closely,  and  yet  be 
actually  more  closely  related  to  the  radicle  form  than 
they  are  to  each  other.  Formerly  such  species  were 
grouped  together  in  one  genus,  and  called  "representa- 
tive "  species ;  now  we  know  them  to  be  merely  morpho- 
logical equivalents  in  different  lines  of  descent. 

When  the  close  coiled  stage  was  reached  the  nautilian 
shell  had  reached  its  limit,  and  could  progress  no  fur- 
ther, and  at  once  some  of  the  stock  began  to  retrograde. 
This  is  beautifully  shown  in  the  development  of  Lituites 
(Plate  V,  Fig.  6),  which  goes  through  the  orthoceran, 
cyrtoceran,  gyroceran,  and  nautilian  stages,  and  as  it 
becomes  adolescent  leaves  the  close  coil  and  reverts  to 
the  orthoceran  type.  A  number  of  other  nautilian  genera 
acted  in  this  way,  giving  rise  to  a  number  of  aberrant 
types.  These  reversionary  nautiloids  are  confined  to 
the  Paleozoic,  and  did  not  in  any  case  become  radicles  of 
later  groups;  they  had  run  their  course,  exhausted  the 
possibilities  of  development,  and  died  out  without 
descendants.  But  the  old  simple  orthoceran  type  held 
out  until  the  Trias,  and  the  unspecialized  nautilian  shell 
endured  until  the  present  time,  although  now  rapidly 
nearing  extinction. 

The  animals  that  are  capable  of  giving  the  best  proof 
of  evolution  are  the  ammonoids.  Somewhere  back  in 
the  Silurian  an  Orthoceras  by  acceleration  of  develop- 
ment finally  acquired  a  calcareous  protoconch,  or  em- 


EXPLANATION    OF   THE    FIGURES.* 
PLATE  II. 

All  figures  on  this  plate  are  fifteen  times  enlarged,  except  Fig.  9, 
which  is  once  and  a  half  its  natural  size. 

Glyphioceras  incisum  HYATT. 

Figs,  i  and  2. — Adolescent  stage,  one  and  three  fourths  whorls, 
diameter  of  1.29  mm.,  last  whorl  is  ananeanic  (Prionoceras  stage) 
and  shows  transition  from  paranepionic.  i,  front ;  2,  side. 

Figs.  3  and  4. — Adolescent  stage,  diameter  of  1.37  mm.,  one 
and  seven  eighths  whorls,  Prionoceras  stage.  3,  from  front ;  4, 
from  side. 

Figs.  5  and  6. — Adolescent  stage,  diameter  of  1.64  mm.,  two 
and  one  eighth  whorls,  Prionoceras  stage.  5,  from  front ;  6,  from 
side. 

Figs.  7  and  8. — End  of  adolescent  stage,  diameter  of  2.25  mm., 
two  and  three  fourths  whorls ;  transition  from  Prionoceras  to 
Glyphioceras  in  the  division  of  the  ventral  lobe,  and  beginning 
rounding  of  the  whorl.  7,  side  view  ;  8,  front  view. 

Fig.  9. — Early  adult  stage,  diameter  of  15  mm.,  once  and  a 
half  enlarged. 


*  From  The  Development  of  Glyphioceras  and  the  Phylogeny  of  the 
Glyphioceratidae,  by  J.  P.  Smith.  Proc.  Calif.  Acad.  Sci.,  third  series,  vol. 
i,  Geology,  No.  3,  Plate  XIV. 


PLATE    II. 


8. 


EVOLUTION   OF   FOSSIL   CEPHALOPODA. 


243 


bryo  shell,  a  marginal  siphuncle,  and  a  small  siphonal 
lobe.  This  form,  Bactrites,  is  transitional  to  the  am- 
monoids,  and  may  be  considered  as  the  radicle  of  that 
order ;  Plate  V,  Fig.  7,  shows  a  magnified  protoconch 
and  early  larval  chambers  of  Bactrites.  The  true  am- 
monoids  developed  out  of  Bactrites  near  the  beginning 
of  Devonian  time ;  the  first  of  these,  the  Nautilinidte, 
differed  from  Bactrites  in  no  respect  except  their  coil, 
and  Mimoceras  (Plate  V,  Fig.  8)  began  its  larval  history 
as  a  straight  Bactrites-\\k.t  shell,  then  became  curved 
like  a  Cyrtoceras,  then  loosely  coiled  like  Gyroceras,  and 
finally  reached  the  primitive  nautilian  stage  of  involu- 
tion. Anarcestes,  another  of  the  earliest  Nautilinidce, 
was  successively  cyrtoceran,  gyroceran,  and  finally 
close-coiled  nautilian.  Thus  in  the  ammonoids  we  have 
a  single  development  series,  corresponding  to  the  many 
parallel  series  of  the  nautiloids  ;  reversionary  series  did 
not  come  in  until  much  later  in  the  family  history. 

From  the  Nautilinidcz  of  the  early  Devonian  the  am- 
monoids branched  out  rapidly,  continued  increasing,  di- 
verging, became  highly  specialized  and  accelerated  until 
their  final  extinction  at  the  end  of  Cretaceous  time. 
Each  ammonite  goes  through  a  larval  history  that  is 
long  and  varied  in  direct  proportion  to  the  length  of 
time  from  its  period  back  to  the  Lower  Devonian. 
Thus  in  the  Nautilinidce  we  find  very  simple  ontogeny, 
with  no  great  changes  from  the  larval  up  to  the  adult 
stages,  except  in  the  increasing  involution  of  the  later 
whorls.  The  higher  Devonian  and  Carboniferous  spe- 
cies go  through  several  generic  changes  before  they 
become  adults,  and  Mesozoic  forms  have  still  longer 
larval  and  adolescent  periods — that  is,  longer  in  the 
sense  of  having  more  stages. 

From  the  work  of  L.  von  Buch,  Quenstedt,  and  others 
of  the  older  paleontologists,  the  increasing  variety  of 


244 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


forms  from  the  goniatites  of  the  Paleozoic,  to  the  ammon- 
ites of  the  Mesozoic,  was  known  long  ago  ;  these  natu- 
ralists knew,  too,  that  ammonites  went  through  a  gonia- 
tite  stage  in  youth,  without  connecting  this  with  evolu- 
tion. By  using  their  work  we  can  get  a  comprehensive 
view  of  the  development  of  ammonoids  from  the  most 
primitive  goniatites  to  the  most  highly  developed  am- 
monites, and  thus  construct  a  tentative  family  tree. 

The  simple  primitive  forms  of  the  Lower  Devonian 
branch  out  by  the  end  of  that  age  into  two  distinct 
stocks,  the  Prolecanitida  and  the  Goniatitidce,  mostly  low 
whorled,  involute,  with  simple  sutures  and  little  orna- 
mentation. Before  the  end  of  the  Carboniferous  some 
genera  have  already  become  ammonitic  in  the  digitation 
of  their  sutures,  as  Popanoceras,  Thalassoceras,  Pronorites 
(Plate  IV,  Figs.  9  and  10),  and  some  have  taken  on  am- 
monitic ornamentation  of  the  shell,  while  the  sutures 
remain  simple  and  entire,  as  Gastrioceras  (Plate  IV,  Fig. 
n)  and  Paralegoceras  (Plate  IV,  Figs.  12  and  13).  None 
of  these  forms,  however,  are  very  evolute,  and  the 
whorls  are  mostly  rather  low.  These  are  all  progressive 
in  development,  and  probably  nearly  all  became  radi- 
cles of  more  highly  specialized  groups.  No  retrogres- 
sive, or  reversionary,  goniatites  are  known.  In  the 
Permian  Pronorites  and  its  descendants  Sicanites  and 
Medlicottia  play  an  important  part,  the  Arcestida  are 
already  become  important  members  of  the  fauna,  the 
Tropitidcz.  are  just  beginning,  while  the  Glyphioceratidce 
are  dying  out.  Some  few  genera  still  persist  in  the 
goniatitic  stage,  but  most  of  them  became  ammonitic 
before  the  Trias  was  well  on. 

In  the  Trias  the  important  groups  are  Arccstida,  Pina- 
coceratidce,  Tropitida;,  Ceratitida,  with  numerous  others 
less  important  as  members  of  the  Triassic  fauna,  but  of 
great  interest  as  ancestors  of  many  of  the  chief  families 


EVOLUTION   OF   FOSSIL   CEPHALOPODA.         245 

of  the  Jura  and  Cretaceous.  In  the  Jura  these  ammon- 
ites reached  their  acme,  branching  out  into  very  many 
families  and  subfamilies,  increasing  usually  in  complex- 
ity of  sutures  and  variety  of  ornamentation.  In  the 
Cretaceous  they  gradually  declined,  dropping  off  one  at 
a  time  until  all  were  gone.  The  total  number  of  Am- 
monoidea  now  described  reaches  about  five  thousand,  of 
which  only  a  few  hundred  belong  to  the  Paleozoic  gonia- 
tites,  the  others  belonging  to  the  ammonites  of  the  Car- 
boniferous, Permian,  and  Mesozoic.  Later  than  this  no 
ammonoids  are  known. 

Only  simple  radicles  or  stocks  persist,  but  from  time 
to  time  certain  genera  branch  off  from  the  main  stock, 
become  highly  specialized,  and  often  give  rise  to  so- 
called  abnormal  *  forms,  phylogerontic  or  degenerate 
genera  (retrogressive),  which  do  not  perpetuate  their 
race.  These  leave  their  close  coil,  becoming  straight, 
as  Baculites  (Plate  V,  Fig.  13) ;  ascending  spiral,  as  Tur- 
rilites  (Plate  V,  Fig.  12)  ;  hook-shaped,  as  Macroscaphites 
(Plate  V,  Fig.  14)  ;  or  open-coiled,  gyroceran,  as  Crio- 
ceras  (Plate  V,  Fig.  n).  These  do  not  form  a  natural 
group,  but  are  themselves  even  in  some  cases  polyphy- 
letic,  as  shown  by  their  ontogeny ;  their  larval  stages, 
however,  as  shewn  even  by  the  straight  Baculites  (Plate 
V,  Fig.  13),  all  correspond  to  various  normal  close- 
coiled  progressive  genera,  such  as  Lytoceras  (Plate  V, 
Fig.  10). 

Of  course  there  were  phylogerontic  genera  that  were 
not  abnormal  in  shape ;  thus  Clymenia  branched  off  in 
the  Upper  Devonian  into  a  variety  of  species,  and  dis- 
appeared as  suddenly  ;  Medlicottia  reached  its  culmina- 
tion in  the  Permian,  barely  managed  to  live  on  until  the 
Trias,  and  disappeared  without  posterity,  while  the  main 

*  J.  F.  Pompeckj.  Ueber  Ammonoideen  mit  Anormaler  Wohn- 
kammer.  Stuttgart,  1894. 


246  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

stock  of  unspecialized  Prohcanitida  endured  as  long  as 
the  race.  The  number  of  phylogerontic  forms  increases 
in  the  Mesozoic,  showing  a  constantly  increasing  tend- 
ency to  become  abnormal,  until  before  the  end  of  the 
Cretaceous  the  entire  race  of  ammonoids  becomes  phy- 
logerontic, and  dies  out  from  sheer  lack  of  plasticity  to 
modify  itself  further  with  changing  conditions. 

Such  a  general  view  or  family  tree  of  the  ammonoids 
may  be  seen  in  any  of  the  text-books  of  paleontology, 
especially  those  of  Steinmann,*  and  of  K.  von  Zittel,f 
where  we  get  the  best  attempts  to  represent  our  present 
knowledge  and  ideas  of  the  genetic  relationships  of  am- 
monites. These  genealogies  are,  however,  purely  ten- 
tative, based  not  on  ontogeny  but  on  comparison  of 
series  of  adults.  This  would  undoubtedly  be  the  safest 
way  if  we  had  a  perfect  series  of  genera  and  species,  but 
such  a  thing  is  unknown,  and  can  never  be  obtained,  on 
account  of  the  incompleteness  of  the  geologic  record, 
and  the  mixing  of  faunas  by  migration  in  the  past. 

The  researches  of  Hyatt,  Branco,  and  Karpinsky 
have  given  us  a  surer  way  ;  from  their  work  we  have 
learned  that  the  Ammonoidea  preserve  in  each  individual 
a  complete  record  of  their  larval  and  early  adolescent 
history,  the  embryonic  protoconch  and  the  young  cham- 
bers being  enveloped  and  protected  by  later  stages  of 
the  shell.  Also  the  record  is  a  perfect  one,  for  no 
resorption  of  stages  of  the  shell  has  ever  been  observed 
in  the  chambered  cephalopods.  And  so  by  breaking  off 
the  outer  chambers  the  naturalist  can  in  effect  cause  the 
shell  to  repeat  its  life  history  in  inverse  order,  for  each 
stage  of  growth  represents  some  extinct  ancestral  genus. 
These  genera  appeared  in  the  exact  order  of  their 
minute  imitations  in  the  larval  history  of  their  descend- 

*  Elemente  der  Palaeontologie,  1890. 
f  Grundziige  der  Palaeontologie,  1895. 


EXPLANATION    OF   THE    FIGURES.* 

PLATE  III. 
Schloenbachia  nov.  sp.  aff.   S.  chicoensis  TRASK. 

Fig.  I. — Cross-section,  diameter  6.25  mm.,  four  whorls,  seven 
and  a  half  times  enlarged,  showing  the  embryonic  protoconch  in 
the  centre,  P. 

Fig.  2. — Cross-section,  adult,  diameter  22.25  mm.,  six  whorls, 
one  and  three  quarter  times  enlarged. 

Fig.  3. — Protoconch  and  the  first  six  septa  of  the  attached  coil, 
drawn  as  if  unrolled,  fifteen  times  enlarged. 

Fig.  4. — Larval  stage,  diameter  .68  mm.,  fifteen  times  enlarged, 
corresponds  to  the  Carboniferous  genus  Glyphioceras. 

Fig.  5. — Larval  stage,  diameter  .64  mm.,  showing  septa  from 
the  third  to  the  tenth,  fifteen  times  enlarged. 

Fig.  6. — Septa  in  Glyphioceras  stage,  diameter  .75  mm.,  seven 
eighths  whorls. 

Fig.  7. — Larval  stage,  transitional  from  Glyphioceras  to  Gastrio- 
ceras,  diameter  1.20  mm.,  one  and  a  half  whorls,  seven  and  a  half 
times  enlarged. 

Fig.  8. — Septa  in  Gastrioceras  stage,  diameter  1.70  mm.,  two 
coils. 

Fig.  9. — End  of  larval  stage,  corresponds  to  the  Carboniferous 
genus  Paralegoceras,  diameter  2.25  mm.,  two  and  a  quarter  whorls, 
seven  and  a  half  times  enlarged. 

Fig.  10. — Septa  in  Paralegoceras  stage,  diameter  2.50  mm.,  two 
and  a  half  coils,  end  of  larval  stage. 

Fig.  II. — Septa  in  Para-Styrites  stage,  fifteen  times  enlarged, 
diameter  3.80  mm.  (early  adolescent). 

Fig.  12. — Adolescent  stage  (Para-Styrites),  four  coils,  diameter 
5.60  mm.,  seven  and  a  half  times  enlarged. 

Fig.  13. — Septa  at  diameter  6.40  mm.,  fifteen  times  enlarged, 
three  and  three  fourths  whorls  (middle  adolescent). 

*  Figs.  1-4  from  J.  P.  Smith,  Journal  Geol.,  vol.  v,  No.  5,  Comp.  Study 
of  Palasontogeny  and  Phylogeny ;  all  the  other  figures  on  this  plate  are 
original.  Drawings  by  Frances  R.  Smith. 


PLATE   III. 


EVOLUTION   OF   FOSSIL   CEPHALOPODA. 


247 


ants,  and  by  a  comparative  study  of  larval  stages  with 
adult  forms  the  naturalist  finds  the  key  to  relationships, 
and  is  enabled  to  arrange  genera  in  genetic  series.  They 
were  all  marine,  never  parasitic,  always  free,  and  so  with 
them  there  is  no  obscuring  of  the  record ;  also  in  the 
Mollusca  generic  and  specific  characters  show  in  the 
shell  better  than  in  the  soft  parts  ;  so  the  classification 
of  fossil  ammonites  is  just  as  good  as  that  of  living 
shellfish. 

The  importance  of  this  will  be  appreciated  if  we  con- 
sider other  groups.  The  crustacean  goes  through  suc- 
cessive stages  and  moults  its  shell  after  each  change, 
thus  making  it  difficult,  especially  in  fossils,  to  find  and 
study  these  various  stages.  The  ammonite,  after  it  has 
grown  out  of  each  stage  of  its  shell,  carries  it  around 
enveloped  in  the  later  chambers.  So  in  a  single  speci- 
men the  record  is  complete,  and  may  be  read  by  skilful 
handling. 

Although  genera  appeared  in  the  order  of  corre- 
sponding larval  stages,  they  did  not  disappear  in  the 
same  order;  and  so  their  survival  under  favourable  con- 
ditions is  liable  to  make  confusion  in  the  record,  if  one 
depends  wholly  on  the  study  of  series  of  adults.  Such 
forms,  for  instance,  as  Styrites,  Tropiceltites,  Miltites,  and 
others,  that  are  now  known  only  in  the  Karnic  zone  of 
the  Upper  Trias,  are  undoubtedly  such  survivals,  for 
they  still  have  simple  goniatitic  sutures,  very  little  orna- 
mentation, and  in  general  are  more  like  Lower  Triassic 
ammonites  than  members  of  the  Tropites  subbullatus 
fauna.  The  stray  Tirolites  foliaceus,  which  appears  in 
the  Alps  and  in  California  in  this  same  fauna,  is  another 
survival  of  a  Lower  Triassic  type,  but  fortunately  we 
do  know  Tirolites  in  the  horizon  where  it  belongs.  If 
this  were  not  the  case  the  naturalist  would  be  very  much 
puzzled  at  finding  Trachyceras  of  the  Karnic  horizon 


248  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

going  through  a  Tirolites  stage  in  its  early  youth. 
Neither  does  the  first  discovery  of  a  genus  always  cor- 
respond with  its  first  appearance.  For  example,  tere- 
bratuloid  brachiopods  are  not  known  below  the  Devo- 
nian, but  their  existence  in  the  Silurian  is  necessitated  by 
the  occurrence  of  a  terebratuloid  stage  in  the  ontogeny 
of  spire-bearing  brachiopods  {Ancylobranchia)  of  that  age. 

One  great  drawback  to  this  work  is  that  the  am- 
monite faunas  of  the  various  ages  have  been  classified 
by  different  specialists  and  on  different  principles,  but 
all  artificial.  Thus  the  Triassic  ammonites  are  divided 
into  Leiostraca  (smooth-shelled)  and  Trachyostraca 
(rough-shelled),  a  classification  that  can  not  be  extended 
even  to  Jurassic  groups.  The  Trachyostraca  are  further 
divided  into  Tropitidtz,  with  long  body  chamber,  and  Cerati- 
tid(z,  with  short  chamber.  But  neither  of  these  groups  is 
monophyletic,  for  it  is  quite  probable,  judging  from  their 
ontogeny,  that  members  of  both  groups  are  derived 
from  the  Goniatittdce,  and  others  from  the  Prolecanitida. 
Further,  the  authorities  agree  in  deriving  the  Tropitida 
from  the  Glyphioceratidce,  but  the  larval  stages  of  some 
of  the  TropitidcB  show  the  undivided  ventral  lobe  and 
an  unmistakable  resemblance  to  certain  Prolecanitida  ; 
other  so-called  Tropitida  show  the  divided  ventral  lobe 
at  an  early  age,  and  a  decided  resemblance  to  the  stock 
of  Glyphioceratidce. 

In  the  same  way  most  authorities  agree  that  the  Tra- 
chyostraca were  all  extinguished  at  the  end  of  the 
Trias,  and  that  all  the  Jurassic  and  Cretaceous  ammon- 
ites, with  the  exception  of  Lytoceratidce  and  Phyllocera- 
tidce,  were  derived  from  the  radicle  Psiloceras,  and  this, 
too,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  many  of  the  genera  are 
rough  shelled,  and  in  their  larval  stages  show  marked 
likeness  to  trachyostracan  genera.  Any  naturalist  can 
convince  himself  of  this  by  looking  at  the  young  stages 


EXPLANATION    OF  THE    FIGURES.* 
PLATE  IV. 

Fig.  i. — Development  of  septa  of  Glyphioceras  incisum  Hyatt, 
from  the  protoconch  to  the  eighth  septum,  af-. 

Fig.  2. — Adolescent  septum  of  G.  incisum,  one  and  three  fourth 
coils,  diameter  1.29  mm.,  twenty  times  enlarged  (Prionocercts 
stage). 

Fig.  3. — Septum  of  G.  incisum,  diameter  1.37  mm.  {Prionoceras). 

Fig.  4. — Septum  of  G.  incisum,  diameter  1.64  mm.  (Prionoceras). 

Fig.  5. — Septum  of  G.  incisum,  diameter  2.25  mm.,  two  and 
three  quarter  whorls,  transition  from  Prionoceras  to  Glvphioceras. 

Fig.  6. — Early  adult  septum  of  G.  incisum,  diameter  15  mm. 

Fig.  7. — Septa  of  Anarcestes  sttbnautilinus  Sandberger  (after 
L.  von  Buch). 

Fig.  8. — Development  of  the  septa  of  Tornoceras  retrorsum 
Buch  (after  Branco). 

Fig.  9. — Development  of  the  septa  of  Pronorites  cyclolobns  Phil- 
lips (after  Karpinsky). 

Fig.  10. — Adult  septum  of  Pronorites  cyclolobus,  variety  arkan- 
siensis,  J.  P.  Smith  (after  J.  P.  Smith,  Proc.  Amer.  Phil.  Soc.,  vol. 
xxv,  No.  152,  Plate  XXIV,  Fig.  4). 

Fig.  II. — Septum  of  Gastrioceras  branneri  J.  P.  Smith  (loc.  cit., 
Plate  XXIII,  Fig.  6). 

Fig.  12. — Paralegoceras  iowense  Meek  and  Worthen  (after  J.  P. 
Smith,  loc.  cit.,  Plate  XIX,  Fig.  i). 

Fig.  13.— Septa  of  P.  iowense  (after  J.  P.  Smith,  loc.  cit.,  Plate 
XIX,  Fig.  3*). 

*  The  figures  of  G.  incisum  are  from  The  Development  of  Glyphioceras 
and  the  Phylogeny  of  the  Glyphioceratidas,  by  J.  P.  Smith.  Proc.  Calif. 
Acad.  Sci.,  third  series,  vol.  i,  Geology,  No.  3,  Plate  XV.  The  figures  of 
Tornoceras  are  from  Branco,  Palasontographica,  vol.  xxvii,  Plate  V,  Fig.  7. 
The  septa  of  Pronorites  cyclolobus  are  from  Karpinsky,  Ammoneen  d. 
Artinsk-Stufe,  Plate  I,  Fig.  4  g-l.  Drawings  by  Frances  R.  Smith. 


PLATE    IV. 


EVOLUTION   OF   FOSSIL   CEPHALOPODA. 


249 


of  Jurassic  ammonites  figured  by  Quenstedt.*  Quite 
recently  Prof.  W.  Waagen  f  has  called  attention  to  the 
likeness  of  certain  Trachyostraca  to  Jurassic  genera, 
and  indicated  the  probability  of  genetic  relationships. 
But  Mojsisovics  J  says  that  these  similarities  have  noth- 
ing to  do  with  relationship,  but  are  purely  "  converg- 
ence phenomena,"  whatever  that  may  mean.  Resem- 
blance of  adults  of  Triassic  and  Jurassic  forms  might 
with  some  reason  be  ascribed  to  this  mysterious  agency, 
but  surely  no  biologist  would  thus  explain  away  the  re- 
semblance of  larval  and  adolescent  stages  of  Jurassic 
ammonites  to  adult  Trachyostraca  of  the  Trias.  There 
was  some  excuse  for  such  opinions  as  long  as  the  fauna 
of  the  upper  Trias  was  not  well  known,  and  there  was 
apparently  a  great  break  in  the  series  of  ammonites.  But 
after  the  appearance  of  the  monographs  of  G.  von  Art- 
haber,  Diener,  Mojsisovics,  and  Waagen,*  on  the  Triassic 
faunas  of  the  Alps,  Himalayas,  the  Salt  Range  of  India, 
and  Siberia,  there  is  no  longer  any  such  excuse.  Ancestral 
types,  long  predicted  by  larval  stages  of  Jurassic  ammo- 
nites, may  be  seen  in  these  works,  as,  for  instance,  Tropi- 
cettites,  which  is  exactly  like  the  neanic  stage  of  Amal- 
theus ;  but  the  great  variety  is  confusing,  and  correla- 
tion difficult,  on  account  of  unsatisfactory  classification. 
The  only  solution  of  the  problem  is  to  classify  ge- 
netically the  Paleozoic  goniatites,  and  from  them  work 
upward  into  the  Permian  and  Lower  Triassic  ammonites. 
These  older  groups  have  simpler  larval  stages,  are  not 
very  greatly  accelerated,  and  repeat  clearly  their  an- 
cestral history.  When  this  is  done  the  radicles  will  all 

*  Ammoniten  des  Schwabischen  Jura. 

f  Pal.  Indica,  Salt  Range  Fossils,  vol.  ii,  p.  122. 
\  Das  Gebirge  um  Hallstadt,  Bd.  ii,  p.  265. 

*  For  literature  on  Triassic  faunas,  see  Jour.  Geol.,  vol.  iv,  No. 
4,  J.  P.  Smith,  Classification  of  Marine  Trias. 


250 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


be  known,  and  when  we  know  the  stock  of  the  tree,  the 
branches  that  came  off  in  the  higher  Trias,  Jura,  and 
Cretaceous  will  offer  no  difficulties.  The  most  syste- 
matic attempt  to  do  this  is  Haug's  paper,  Les  Ammo- 
nites du  Permien  et  du  Trias;*  but  his  classification  is 
based  wholly  on  the  character  of  the  sutures,  and 
neglects  other  characters,  such  as  sculpture  and  shape 
of  the  whorls.  Thus  Haug  places  Eutomoceras  with 
the  prionidian  family  Trachyceratidiz,  disregarding  its 
ontogeny,  which  places  it  undoubtedly  with  the  Tropitida. 
But  no  classification  based  entirely  on  one  character 
can  be  truly  genetic.f 

Study  of  the  development  of  many  species  has  shown 
that  similar  characteristics  do  not  always  mean  close 
relationship  ;  they  may  often  be  developed  in  different 
series  coming  from  a  common  remote  ancestor,  and  liv- 
ing under  similar  conditions.  They  are  in  no  sense 
hereditary  characters,  but  morphological  equivalents 
acquired  from  the  action  of  the  same  stimulus.  The 
occurrence  of  orthoceran,  cyrtoceran,  gyroceran,  nautil- 
ian,  and  reversionary  stages  in  both  nautiloids  and 
ammonoids  is  a  case  in  point.  Compare  the  develop- 
ment and  reversion  of  Lituites  (Plate  V,  Fig.  6),  of  the 
nautiloid  stock  with  that  of  Baculites  (Plate  V,  Fig.  13) 
of  the  ammonoids,  and  the  analogy  becomes  evident ; 
compare  also  the  reversionary  Crioceras  (Plate  V,  Fig. 
n)  with  the  progressive  Gyroceras  (Plate  V,  Fig.  4). 
Hyatt,J  in  his  monographs  on  the  ontogeny  of  ammonites, 

*  Bull.  Soc.  Geol.  France,  ii  sen,  vol.  xxii,  1894,  No.  6. 

f  Since  the  above  was  written,  Haug's  Etudes  sur  les  Gonia- 
tites,  Mem.  Soc.  Geol.  France,  1898,  has  appeared,  but  could  not 
be  used  in  this  paper. 

\  Bull.  Mus.  Comp.  Zool.,  vol.  iii,  No.  5,  1872  ;  and  Smith- 
sonian Contrib.  to  Knowledge,  Genesis  .of  the  Arietidae,  and 
other  papers. 


EVOLUTION   OF   FOSSIL   CEPHALOPODA.         251 

has  shown  us  the  way;  Branco,  by  his  studies  of  the 
larval  stages  of  ammonoids,  has  accumulated  a  great 
mass  of  accurate  data  that  can  be  used  with  confidence, 
even  by  the  student  that  rejects  his  theories  as  to  classi- 
fication. And  Karpinsky,  by  using  the  methods  and 
principles  discovered  by  these  naturalists,  has  worked 
out  the  genealogy  of  one  of  the  chief  stocks  of  the 
earlier  ammonites.  This  way  lies  the  truth,  and  not  in 
groundless  speculations  such  as  many  students  of  cepha- 
lopods  are  prone  to  indulge  in. 

In  order  to  succeed,  one  must  select  material  with 

great  care,  preferably  limestone  that  is  soft  but  not  so 

weathered  as  to  crumble;  nor  so  brittle 

°f  as   t0   shatter-      One>s   finSer  nail   and 


workh 

some   steel    dental   chisels   are   all   the 

tools  needed  for  breaking  off  the  outer  whorls  of  young 
ammonites.  A  microscope  with  thirty  diameters  magni- 
fying power  is  the  most  satisfactory,  although  higher 
powers  are  occasionally  needed.  For  studying  surface 
markings  a  strong  pocket  lens  is  usually  sufficient;  the 
specimen  should  then  be  placed  dry  on  white  cardboard. 
For  observing  the  sutures,  or  shape  of  the  whorls,  the 
specimen  should  be  placed  on  cardboard  in  a  drop  of 
water,  spread  out  so  as  not  to  distort  the  object.  The 
water,  being  slightly  viscous,  will  also  hold  the  small 
object  in  any  position.  For  taking  measurements  a 
micrometer  eyepiece  is  needed,  especially  in  drawing, 
for  the  camera  lucida  is  not  very  satisfactory  for  draw- 
ing opaque  objects.  Sections  can  easily  be  cut  by 
grinding  with  emery  powder  on  a  glass  plate. 

The  accompanying  illustrations  will  give  an  idea  of 
how  the  facts  are  ascertained.  A  number  of  well-pre- 
served adults  of  a  species  are  selected,  and  the  outer 
coils  are  pulled  off  piece  at  a  time  under  water,  until  a 
complete  series  is  obtained,  representing  every  change 


252  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

in  growth.  All  the  pieces  of  whorls  are  preserved,  but 
often  it  is  possible  to  have  a  complete  series  in  one 
specimen.  The  individuals  representing  stages  of 
growth  are  kept  separate,  in  small  glass  tubes  attached 
to  cards  for  labels,  on  which  are  noted  the  measure- 
ments of  the  specimen,  stage  of  growth,  and  such  other 
facts  as  are  wanted  for  ready  reference. 

The  points  to  be  noted  in  studying  the  development 
of  chambered  cephalopods  are :  character  of  the  proto- 
conch  or  embryo  shell ;  position  of  the  siphuncle, 
whether  internal,  median,  or  external ;  character  and 
direction  of  the  siphonal  collars,  as  on  Plate  V,  Fig.  9, 
where  Tropites  phocbus  has  the  young  siphonal  collars 
pointing  backward,  and  the  old  ones  pointing  forward, 
also  change  of  the  siphuncle  from  the  internal  to  the 
external  margin  of  the  whorl  ;  increasing  lobation  of 
the  septa  with  advancing  growth;  changes  in  the  spiral 
of  the  coil ;  increasing  involution,  height  of  whorls,  and 
ornamentation  of  the  outside  shell.  By  observing  care- 
fully these  changes  in  character,  the  successive  stages 
may  be  sharply  distinguished  from  each  other  from  the 
beginning  of  the  larval  period  to  the  old  age  of  the 
shell. 

No  one  species  in  its  life  history  gives  the  entire 
history  of  the  race;  the  earlier  forms  do  not  get  far 
along  in  development,  while  the  later  ones  hasten 
through  the  earlier  generic  stages  so  rapidly  that  a 
Jurassic  or  Cretaceous  species  often  begins  life  where  a 
Paleozoic  form  in  the  same  line  of  descent  left  off.  We 
are  thus  often  forced  to  piece  out  the  development  his- 
tory with  successive  species,  using  both  the  develop- 
ment of  the  individual  and  the  successive  development 
seen  in  the  rocks.  The  writer  has  recently  worked  out 
the  development  of  Glyphioceras  of  the  Carboniferous, 
and  Schloenbachia  of  the  Cretaceous,  in  the  same  line  of 


EXPLANATION    OF   THE    FIGURES. 
PLATE  V.* 

Fig.  I. — Orthoceras  timidum  Barrande  (after  Zittel,  Pal.,  ii, 
Fig.  518). 

Fig.  2. — Cyrtoceras  corbulatum  Barrande  (after  Zittel,  Pal.,  ii, 
Fig.  53i)- 

Fig.  3. — Cyrtoceras  murchisoni  Barrande  (after  Zittel,  Fig.  529). 

Fig.  4. — Gyroceras  alatum  Barrande  (after  Zittel,  Fig.  535). 

Fig.  5. — Nautilus  planotergatus  McCoy  (after  Zittel,  Fig.  539). 

Fig.  6. — Lituites  lituus  Montf.  (after  Zittel,  Fig.  536). 

Fig.  7. — Bactrites  protoconch  (after  Branco,  Palaeontographica, 
vol.  xxvii,  1880). 

Fig.  8. — Mimoceras  compressum  Sandberger  (after  Branco,  Pal., 
vol.  xxvii,  Plate  VIII). 

Fig.  9. —  Tropites  phcebus  Dittmar  (after  Branco). 

Fig.  10. — Lytoceras  liebigi  Oppel  (after  Zittel,  Pal.,  ii,  Fig.  632). 

Fig.  \\.-Criocerasemerici  LeVeille  (after  T.  Wright,  Pal.  Soc., 
vol.  xxxiv,  1880,  Lias  Ammonites,  Fig.  86). 

Fig.  12. —  Tiirrilites  catenatus  d'Orb.  (after  Zittel,  Pal.,  ii,  Fig. 
640). 

Fig.  13. — Baculites  compressus  Say  (after  A.  P.  Brown,  Proc. 
Acad.  Nat.  Sci.,  Philadelphia,  1892,  Plate  IX,  Fig.  i). 

Fig.  14. — Macroscaphites  ivanii  d'Orb.  (after  Zittel,  Pal.,  ii, 
Fig.  635). 

*  Drawings  by  Frances  R.  Smith. 


PLATE   V. 


EVOLUTION   OF   FOSSIL   CEPHALOPODA. 


253 


descent ;  Glyphioceras  goes  through  distinctly  the  stages 
from  Anarcestes  of  the  Devonian,  through  Tornoceras 
and  Prionoceras,  finally  stopping  in  the  Glyphioceras  stage. 
Schloenbachia  hastens  through  the  Anarcestes,  Tornoceras, 
and  Prionoceras  so  that  they  are  hardly  recognisable, 
and  gets  to  be  a  Glyphioceras  even  in  its  middle  larval 
stage,  goes  through  two  more  goniatite  stages,  and 
several  ammonite  stages  before  it  becomes  a  Schloen- 
bachia. 

DEVELOPMENT    OF   GLYPHIOCERAS. 

Glyphioceras  in  its  development  does  not  show  the 
Bactrites  (Plate  V,  Fig.  7)  and  Mimoceras  (Plate  V,  Fig. 
8)  stages,  so  these  must  be  studied  in  lower  forms ;  but 
from  the  Anarcestes  stage  up  they  are  sharply  defined. 
It  begins  life  as  a  protoconch  or  embryonic  shell  while 
undoubtedly  still  in  the  egg ;  this  (shown  on  Plate  I, 
Figs.  1-5)  corresponds  to  the  primitive  cephalopod.  At 
the  beginning  of  its  larval  stage  the  animal  left  the 
protoconch,  built  up  the  first  body  chamber,  and  cut  off 
the  embryonic  part  of  the  shell  by  the  first  septum 
(Plate  I,  Figs.  6  and  10,  Plate  IV,  Fig.  i,  i) ;  at  this  stage 
the  shell  is  analogous  to  the  primitive  nautiloid,  and  it 
is  called  in  Hyatt's  nomenclature  ananepionic.  With 
the  second  chamber  the  young  shell  becomes  an  ammo- 
noid,  and  corresponds  to  the  genus  Anarcestes  of  the 
Lower  Devonian ;  this  is  shown  on  Plate  I,  Fig.  6,  and 
on  the  second  and  third  septum  of  Fig.  9,  also  Plate  IV, 
Fig.  i,  second  and  third  sutures.  On  Plate  IV,  Fig.  7 
shows  for  comparison  the  septa  of  Anarcestes  subnautilinus 
Sandberger.  At  the  fourth  suture  the  shell  is  transi- 
tional to  Tornoceras  of  the  Middle  Devonian.  Plate  I, 
Fig.  9,  shows  the  beginning  of  the  Tornoceras  stage, 
which  lasts  through  the  sixth  chamber,  as  shown  on 
Fig.  12,  and  on  Plate  IV,  Fig.  i,  at  the  fourth  and  fifth 
septa.  For  comparison  the  development  of  the  septa  of 


§54  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

Tornoceras  retrorsum  Buch  is  figured  on  Plate  IV,  Fig.  8. 
At  the  seventh  chamber,  three  fourths  of  a  whorl,  and 
diameter  of  about  0.85  millimetre,  the  shell  changes  its 
form  rather  suddenly,  the  umbilicus  widens,  the  body 
chamber  narrows,  and  the  number  of  lobes  and  saddles 
increases ;  this  stage  corresponds  to  the  Upper  Devonian 
genus  Prionoceras*  as  shown  on  Plate  I,  Figs,  n  and  12; 
and  more  advanced  on  Plate  II,  Figs.  2-6,  the  resem- 
blance to  that  genus  being  perfect  in  everything  except 
size,  and  any  naturalist  would  have  described  these 
stages  as  Prionoceras  if  they  had  not  been  taken  out  of 
the  inner  coils  of  Glyphioceras.  The  septa  of  this  stage 
are  shown  on  Plate  IV,  Fig.  i,  eighth  septum,  and  Figs.  2, 
3,  and  4 ;  Fig.  5  shows  the  transition  to  Glyphioceras, 
and  the  corresponding  shell  is  shown  on  Plate  II,  Figs. 
7  and  8.  The  adult  is  shown  on  Plate  II,  Fig.  9,  and 
Plate  IV,  Fig.  6. 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  SCHLOENBACHIA. 

Schloenbachia  begins  its  development  almost  where 
Glyphioceras  leaves  off,  or  rather  it  hastens  through  the 
stages  before  the  Glyphioceras  stage  so  rapidly  that  they 
are  almost  unrecognisable.  On  Plate  III,  Fig.  3  shows 
the  embryonic  protoconch,  and  the  first  six  septa  drawn 
as  ;f  unrolled,  in  which  short  space  it  hastens  through 
the  stages  corresponding  to  Anarcestes,  Tornoceras, 
Prionoceras,  and  becomes  a  Glyphioceras.  Fig.  4  shows 
the  shell  in  that  stage,  and  Fig.  6  shows  the  correspond- 
ing septa.  Fig.  7  shows  the  transition  to  the  Gastrioceras 
stage,  the  septa  of  which  are  seen  in  Fig.  8.  The  next 
stage  corresponds  to  the  Carboniferous  genus  Paralego- 
ceras,  Figs.  9  and  10,  and  with  this  the  goniatitic  larval 
period  ends.  The  first  adolescent  (ammonitic)  character 
that  appears  is  a  keel,  at  the  diameter  of  2.7  millimetres, 
and  shortly  after  this  the  first  lateral  saddle  becomes 


EVOLUTION   OF   FOSSIL   CEPHALOPODA.         255 

divided  by  a  secondary  lobe  (Plate  III,  Fig.  n),  and  the 
whorl  becomes  higher  and  the  spiral  wider  (Fig.  12). 
Shortly  after  this  the  lobes  and  saddles  all  become 
slightly  digitate  (Fig.  13),  and  the  family  relationship 
of  the  young  shell  are  unmistakable. 

Fig.  i  shows  a  cross-section  of  an  adolescent  shell, 
four  whorls,  in  which  the  broad,  low  helmet-shaped  in- 
ner whorls,  the  widening  of  the  umbilicus,  increase  in 
height  of  the  later  whorls,  development  of  the  keel,  and 
flattening  of  the  sides  are  shown,  seven  and  a  half  times 
enlarged. 

Fig.  2  shows  an  adult  cross-section,  six  whorls,  one 
and  three  quarter  times  enlarged,  showing  the  angular 
shoulders  and  considerable  involution  of  the  adult 
shell. 

Since  Schloenbachia  appears  near  the  time  of  final  ex- 
tinction of  the  ammonites,  and  is  still  normal  in  develop- 
ment, it  gives  in  its  own  development  an  admirable 
epitome  of  the  history  of  the  race.  And  by  combining 
this  with  the  ontogeny  of  its  ancestor,  Glyphioceras,  we 
are  able  to  trace  the  genealogy  with  certainty  back  to 
the  first  ammonoids  that  appeared  in  geologic  history. 

By  following  this  method  the  complete  ontogeny  of 
any  species  of  ammonite  may  be  worked  out,  and  in 
order  to  learn  the  phylogeny  of  any  form  it  is  only 
necessary  to  combine  this  with  comparative  study  of 
antecedent  genera  and  species.  When  this  is  done  for 
all  the  Ammonoidea,  their  genealogy  will  be  more  per- 
fectly known  than  any  other  family  tree  possibly  can 
be.  If  evolution  needs  any  demonstration  to  raise  it 
from  a  working  hypothesis  to  a  fixed  principle  of  biology 
we  have  it  in  the  history  of  the  fossil  cephalopods. 


18 


X. 

THE   EVOLUTION   OF   THE   MIND. 

"Three  roots  bear  up  dominion,  Knowledge,  Will, 
The  third,  Obedience,  the  great  tap-root  of  all." 

LOWELL. 

THE  mind,  in  the  sense  in  which  I  shall  use  the  word 
here,  is  the  collective  function  of  the  sensorium  or  brain 
of  man  and  animals.     It  is  the  sum  total 
Mind  the  sum        of  aU  psychic  changes,  actions,  and  re- 
total  of  psychic  TT 

changes  actions.      Under   the    head   of    psychic 

functions  are  included  all  operations  of 
the  nervous  system,  as  well  as  operations  of  like  nature 
which  take  place  in  creatures  without  specialized  nerve 
fibres  or  nerve  cells. 

As  thus  defined,   mental  operations  are  not   neces- 
sarily or  exclusively  conscious.     With  the  lower  animals 
nearly  all  of  them  are  automatic  and  un- 
conscious.    Even  with  man.  most  of  them 
consciousness. 

must  be  so.     But  between  the  automatic 

and  the  conscious  actions  no  sharp  line  of  division  ex- 
ists. Consciousness  is  not  an  entity  but  a  condition. 
It  stands  related  to  mind  much  as  flame  is  related  to 
fire.  All  functions  of  the  nervous  system  are  alike  in 
essential  nature,  and  from  the  present  point  of  view  may 
be  considered  together. 

It  is  a  recognised  law  in  biology  that  "function  pre- 
cedes structure."     To  define  this  law  more  exactly  we 
256 


THE    EVOLUTION   OF   THE    MIND. 


257 


should  say  that  function  precedes  the  differentiation  of 
the  organ  on  which  it  depends.     There  is  a  certain  work 
to   be  done  and  a  certain  body  of  cells  are  set  apart 
sooner  or  later  to  do  it.     Just  as  plough- 
ing was  done  in  some  fashion  before  the 
structure  invention  of  the  plough,  so  in  some  man- 

ner respiration  was  accomplished  before 
the  development  of  gills  and  lungs.  Something  of  men- 
tal action  came  before  there  was  an  organized  brain. 
This  law  involves  nothing  mysterious  or  incomprehen- 
sible. It  does  not,  so  far  as  we  know,  imply  the  pre- 
existence  of  mind  or  the  carrying  out  of  any  predeter- 
mined purpose  in  development.  All  this  may  be  or  may 
not  be,  but  the  phenomena  in  question  throw  no  light 
on  it.  The  fact  seems  to  be  that  when  the  bodily  pro- 
cesses make  certain  demands  on  an  organism,  these  de- 
mands will  be  met  in  some  fashion.  Through  natural 
selection  some  better  structure  will  come  into  competi- 
tion. The  cells  and  tissues  on  which  the  function  de- 
pends will  be  specialized  as  an  organ.  In  creatures  of 
different  ancestry  the  same  function  may  be  discharged 
by  widely  different  organs.  Conversely,  what  is  ances- 
trally the  same  organ  may  in  different  groups  of  ani- 
mals serve  functions  widely  different. 

In  the  animals  of  one  cell,  or  protozoa,  breathing 
and  digestion  are  each  performed  by  the  whole  body. 
In  the  division  of  labour  or  specialization  which  arises 
in  the  higher  or  many-celled  animals  certain  alliances  of 
cells  or  tissues  are  set  apart  for  respiration  alone,  and 
certain  others  for  digestion,  while  other  functions  of 
animal  life  are  relegated  to  still  other  cell  alliances. 
Each  organ  in  turn  is  released  from  all  functions  except 
its  own. 

Irritability,  or  the  response  to  external  stimulus,  is 
an  attribute  of  all  living  organisms.  In  the  method 


258  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

and  degree  of  response  variations  occur.  Those  varia- 
tions favourable  to  the  division  of  labour  and  the  adap- 
tation of  the  animal  to  its  surroundings 
Irritability  the  afe  seized  and  fixed  b  natural  selection, 
basis  of  mind. 

In  this  way,  on  the  basis  of  a  diffused 

function,  an  organ  is  built  up  and  the  organ  itself  is 
specialized  and  perfected. 

The  mind  and  consciousness  of  man  is  an  outgrowth 
from   the   irritability  of   the  lower   animals,  developed 
through  series  of  "  successive  differen- 
The  brain  tiations     and     integrations."      All    the 

adequate  for  the        .  .  ,  , 

.    ,  higher  animals  are  colonies  of  co-oper- 

ating and  co-ordinated  cells.  In  such 
colonies  of  units  the  functions  of  sensation,  thought, 
and  motion  are  relegated  to  series  of  the  most  sensitive 
and  most  highly  organized  cells.  This  alliance  of  cells 
is  adequate  for  the  work  it  has  to  perform.  The  brain 
is  always  adequate  for  the  mind,  for  the  one  is  the 
organ,  the  other  the  function,  and  the  development  of 
the  two  must  go  on  together. 

The  intellect  of   man  can  not  be  regarded  as  the 
crowning  marvel  of  the  "great  riddles  of  life."     A  mar- 
vel is  no  greater  for  its  bigness.     Life  is 
e  ma  one  continuous  marvel,  without  break  or 

end.  The  human  mind  is  one  of  life's 
manifestations.  The  marvel  appears  in  great  or  small 
psychic  powers  alike,  for  the  great  powers  of  the  many- 
celled  brain  are  produced  by  the  co-operation  and  spe- 
cialization of  the  small  powers  of  the  single  cell.  Na- 
ture knows  neither  great  nor  small.  "  God  works  finer 
with  his  hands  than  man  can  see  with  his  eyes."  The 
single  cell  is  far  from  simple.  The  egg  or  germ  cell 
carries  within  itself  the  whole  machinery,  as  well  as  the 
whole  mystery,  of  heredity.  The  simplest  organism  we 
know  is  far  more  complex  than  the  constitution  of  the 


THE   EVOLUTION   OF   THE   MIND. 


259 


United  States.  Its  adjustments,  checks,  and  balances 
are  more  perfect.  It  should  in  its  changing  relations  be 
compared  rather  with  the  great  unwritten  constitution 
of  civilized  society.  The  laws  of  society  spring  from 
the  laws  governing  the  development  of  the  single  cell. 
If  we  knew  the  latter  "all  in  all,"  as  Tennyson  says 
of  the  flower,  "  we  should  know  what  God  is  and 
man  is." 

If  we  could  follow  any  life  problem  to  its  uttermost 
detail,  we  should  have  the  clew  to  all  life. 

Among  the  protozoa,  as  already  stated,  all  activities 

are  centred  in  the  single  cell  which  forms  the  animal 

unit.     Each  cell  is  sufficient  unto  itself. 

Activities  of          It  ig  independent  and  free  but  it  is  at 

protozoa. 

the  same  time  unspecialized  and  in- 
effective. Its  career  offers  no  wide  play  for  volition, 
for  a  single  life  unit  can  not  control  the  elements  which 
surround  it.  It  is  the  sport  of  the  wind  and  the  wave. 
But  the  recognition  of  self  and  non-self,  which  in  one 
form  or  another  is  the  attribute  of  all  life,  is  not  want- 
ing among  the  protozoa.  Some  of  them  develop  this 
sense  to  a  large  degree.  It  is  said  that  among  the 
rhizopods  are  those  whose  appendages  or  pseudopodia 
are  at  once  cast  off  if  they  come  in  contact  with  the  ap- 
pendages of  another  of  the  same  species.  This  recog- 
nition of  self  and  non-self  is  not  intellect,  but  it  is 
homologous  with  the  impulses  on  which  in  the  higher 
types  personality  depends. 

All  sensation  has  reference  to  action.     If  a  creature 

is  not  to  act  it  can  not  feel.     Wherever  motion  exists 

there  is  some  sensitiveness  to  external 

Sensation  re-          conditions,  and  this  is  of  the  nature  of 

lated  to  action.  .  . 

mind.  In  a  compound  organism  the  na- 
ture and  position  of  the  sensorium  or  mind  centre  de- 
pends on  what  it  has  to  do,  or  rather  on  what  were  the 


260  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

duties  the  same  structure  had  to  perform  in  the  life  of 
the  creature's  ancestors. 

A  plant  may  be  defined  as  a  sessile  animal.     It  is  an 

organic  colony  of  cells,  with  the  power  of  motion  in 

parts  but  not  that  of  locomotion.     The 

plant  draws  its  nourishment  from  inor- 
the  plant. 

game  nature — from  air  and  water.     Its 

life  is  not  conditioned  on  a  search  for  food,  nor  on  the 
movement  of  the  body  as  a  whole. 

The  plant  searches  for  food  by  a  movement  of  the 
feeding  parts  alone.  In  the  process  of  growth,  as  Dar- 
win has  shown,  the  tips  of  the  branches  and  roots  are  in 
constant  motion.  This  movement  is  in  a  spiral  squirm. 
The  movement  of  the  tendrils  of  the  growing  vine  is 
only  an  exaggeration  of  the  same  action.  The  course 
of  the  squirming  rootlet  may  be  deflected  from  a  regu- 
lar spiral  by  the  presence  of  water.  The  moving  branch- 
lets  will  turn  toward  the  sun.  The  region  of  sensation 
in  the  plant  and  the  point  of  growth  are  identical  be- 
cause this  is  the  only  part  that  needs  to  move.  The 
tender  tip  is  the  plant's  brain.  If  locomotion  were  in 
question  the  plant  would  need  to  be  differently  con- 
structed. It  would  demand  the  mechanism  of  the  ani- 
mal. The  nerve,  brain,  and  muscle  of  the  plant  are  all 
represented  by  the  tender  growing  cells  of  the  moving 
tips.  The  plant  is  touched  by  moisture  or  sunlight.  It 
"thinks"  of  them,  and  in  so  doing  the  cells  that  are 
touched  and  "  think  "  are  turned  toward  the  source  of 
the  stimulus.  The  function  of  the  brain,  therefore,  in 
some  sense  exists  in  the  tree,  but  there  is  no  need  in 
the  tree  for  a  specialized  sensorium. 

The  many-celled  animals  from  the  lowest  to  the 
highest  bear  in  their  organization  some  relation  to  loco- 
motion. The  animal  feeds  on  living  creatures,  and  these 
it  must  pursue  if  it  is  to  thrive.  It  is  not  the  sensitive 


THE   EVOLUTION   OF   THE   MIND.  26l 

nerve  tips  which  are  to  move;  it  is  the  whole  creature. 
By  the  division  of  labour  the  whole  body  of  the  com- 
pound organism  can  not  be  given  over 
Locomotion  to   sensation.     Hence  the  development 

demands  .  ..,,  .         . 

sensation  sense  organs  different  m  character: 

one  stimulated  by  waves  of  light,  another 
by  waves  of  sound  ;  one  sensitive  to  odour,  another 
to  taste  ;  still  others  to  contact,  temperature,  muscular 
strain,  and  pain.  These  sense  organs  must  through  their 
nerve  fibres  report  to  a  sensorium  which  is  distinct  from 
each  of  them.  And  in  the  process  of  specialization  the 
sensorium  itself  is  subdivided  into  higher  and  lower 
nerve  centres ;  centres  of  conscious  thought  and  auto- 
matic transfer  of  impulse  into  motion.  This  transfer  in- 
dicates the  real  nature  of  all  forms  of  nerve  action.  All 
are  processes  of  transfer  of  sensation  into  movement. 
The  sensorium  or  brain  has  no  knowledge  except  such  as 
comes  to  it  from  the  sense  organs  through  the  ingoing 
or  sensory  nerves.  It  has  no  power  to  act  save  by  its 
control  of  the  muscles  through  the  outgoing  or  motor 
nerves.  The  mind  has  no  teacher  save  the  senses ;  no 
servants  save  the  muscles. 

The  reflex  action  then  is  the  type  of  all  mental  opera- 
tions.    The  brain  is  hidden  in  darkness,  protected  from 

sensation  as  also  from  injury  by  a  bony 
Reflex  action.  .  *  /,  ,  T  , 

box  or  a  padding  of  flesh.     It  has  no 

ideas  of  its  own.  It  can  receive  no  information  direct- 
ly. But  the  sense  organs  flood  it  with  impressions  of 
the  external  world,  and  to  these  impressions  the  brain 
chooses  corresponding  acts.  From  the  body  itself,  by 
similar  means,  are  transmitted  impressions  which  be- 
come impulses  to  action.  Such  tendencies  in  all  ani- 
mals and  men  are  transmitted  from  generation  to  gen- 
eration as  a  part  of  the  legacy  of  heredity.  They  are  in 
their  nature  rather  methods  of  movement  than  impulses 


262  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

to  act.  Motion  goes  along  lines  of  least  resistance,  and 
such  lines  are  part  of  the  stock  of  heredity. 

Many  of  the  impressions  from  environment  are  re- 
ceived by  the  lower  nerve  centres  alone,  the  sympathetic 
system  or  the  spinal  cord.  Here  they  are  converted  at 
once  into  motion  without  rising  into  the  region  of  con- 
sciousness. Other  sensations  rise  to  the  brain  itself  and 
are  made  the  basis  of  voluntary  and  conscious  action. 
And  between  the  purely  automatic  actions  and  those 
distinctfy  conscious  and  voluntary  there  may  be  found 
every  possible  intermediate  grade. 

Moreover,  a  conscious  action  often  repeated  becomes 

in   some   degree    reflex   and   automatic.      By   repeated 

action   nerve   connections   are    formed, 

The  higher  which  have  been  compared  to  the  auto- 

heredity.  .        .    ,         ,    ,  .         , 

matic  switches  of  the  electric-light  plant. 

By  these  connections  an  action  once  become  familiar 
requires  no  further  conscious  attention.  This  fact  is 
known  to  us  as  the  formation  of  habit.  That  which 
we  do  to-day  voluntarily  and  even  laboriously,  the  force 
of  habit  will  cause  us  to  repeat  to-morrow  easily,  invol- 
untarily, and  whether  we  will  or  not.  By  the  repetition 
of  conscious  actions  the  character  is  formed.  This  for- 
mation of  personal  character  by  action  I  have  elsewhere 
called  "  the  higher  heredity,"  as  distinguished  from  the 
true  heredity  which  finds  its  bounds  in  the  content  of  the 
germinal  cell.  By  means  of  habits  each  creature  builds 
up  in  some  fashion  its  own  life.  In  such  way  and  to 
some  degree  each  is  "the  architect  of  his  own  fortunes." 
In  such  manner  "the  vanished  yesterdays"  are  the 
tyrants  of  to-morrow. 

Besides  the  actual  sensations,  the  so-called  realities, 
the  brain  retains  also  the  sensations  which  have  been  re- 
ceived, and  which  are  not  wholly  lost.  Memory-pictures 
crowd  the  mind,  mingling  with  pictures  brought  in  afresh 


THE    EVOLUTION    OF    THE    MIND.  263 

by  the  senses.     The  force  of  suggestion  causes  the  men- 
tal states  or  conditions  of  one  person  to  repeat  them- 
selves in  others.     Abnormal  Conditions 
Realities  and  Qf  the  brain  itgelf   furnish  another  series 

illusions.  ......  ..         ,•    i       i        i-      • 

of  feelings  with  which  the  brain  must 

deal.  Moreover,  the  brain  is  charged  with  impulses  to 
action  passed  on  from  generation  to  generation,  surviv- 
ing because  they  are  useful.  With  all  these  arises  the 
necessity  for  choice  as  a  function  of  the  mind.  The 
mind  must  neglect  or  suppress  all  sensations  which  it 
can  not  weave  into  action.  The  dog  sees  nothing  that 
does  not  belong  to  its  little  world.  The  man  in  search 
of  mushrooms  "tramples  down  oak  trees  in  his  walks." 

To  select  the  sensations  that  concern  us 
Selection  of  .g  the  bas}s  of  thfi  power  of  attention, 

sensations.  .  ,  . 

1  he  suppression  of  undesired  action  is  a 

function  of  the  will.  To  find  data  for  choice  among  the 
possible  motor  responses  is  a  function  of  the  intellect. 
Intellectual  persistency  is  the  essence  of  individual  char- 
acter. 

As  the  conditions  of  life  become  more  complex,  it 
becomes  necessary  for  action  to  become  more  carefully 
selected.  Wisdom  is  the  parent  of  virtue.  Knowing 
what  should  be  done  logically  precedes  doing  it.  Good 
impulses  and  good  intentions  do  not  make  actions  safe. 
In  the  long  run,  action  is  tested  not  by  its  motives,  but 
by  its  results. 

The  child  when  he  comes  into  the  world  has  every- 
thing to  learn.  His  nervous  system  is  charged  with  ten- 
dencies to  reaction. and  impulses  to  motion,  which  have 
their  survivals  from  ancestral  experience.  Exact  knowl- 
edge, by  which  his  own  actions  can  be  made  exact,  must 
come  through  his  own  experience.  The  experience  of 
others  must  be  expressed  in  terms  of  his  own  before  it 
becomes  wisdom.  Wisdom,  as  I  have  elsewhere  said, 


264  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

is  knowing  what  one  ought  to  do  next.  Virtue  is  do- 
ing it.  Doing  right  becomes  habit  if  it  is  pursued  long 
enough.  It  becomes  a  "  second  nature,"  or  a  higher 
heredity.  The  formation  of  a  higher  heredity  of  wis- 
dom and  virtue,  of  knowing  right  and  doing  right,  is 
the  basis  of  character-building. 

The  moral  character  is  based  on  knowing  the  best, 
choosing  the  best,  and  doing  the  best.     It  can  not  be 

built  up  on  imitation.    By  imitation,  sug- 
Robust  men  gestion,  and  conventionality  the  masses 

make  history.  .«/»•,«••«. 

are  formed  and  controlled.      To  build 

up  a  man  is  a  nobler  process,  demanding  materials  and 
methods  of  a  higher  order.  The  growth  of  man  is 
the  assertion  of  individuality.  History  is  the  record  of 
the  acts  of  robust  men. 

The  first  relation  of  the  child  to  external  things  is 

expressed  in  this :  What  can  I  do  with  it  ?    What  is  its 

relation  to  me  ?    The  sensation  goes  over 

The  relation  of       intQ   thought>   the    thought    into    action. 

Thus  the  impression  of  the  object  is  built 
environment. 

into  the  little  universe  of  his  mind.     The 

object  and  the  action  it  implies  are  closely  associated. 
As  more  objects  are  apprehended,  more  complex  rela- 
tions arise,  but  the  primal  condition  remains,  What  can 
I  do  with  it  ?  Sensation,  thought,  action,  this  is  the 
natural  sequence  of  each  completed  mental  process.  As 
volition  passes  over  into  action,  so  does  science  into  art, 
knowledge  into  power,  wisdom  into  virtue. 

It  is  thus  evident  that,  with  an  animal  as  with  an 
army,  locomotion  demands  direction.     The  sensorium  is 

built  up  as  a  director  of  motion.     Natu- 
The  sensorium.  ...  ,     ,    , 

ral  selection  causes  the  survival  of  those 

whose  sensorium  is  adequate  for  the  safe  control  of 
movement.  The  animal  which  conducts  its  life  pro- 
cesses in  insecurity  perishes.  The  existence  of  an  or- 


THE   EVOLUTION   OF   THE   MIND.  265 

ganism  is  the  test  of  its  adequacy.  The  continued  ex- 
istence of  a  series  of  organisms  is  the  ultimate  proof  of 
the  truth  of  the  senses. 

With  the  lower  animals  we  have  automatic  obedience 
to  the  demand  of  external  conditions.     The  greater  the 
stress  of  the  environment  the  more  per- 
fect the  automatism,  for  impulses  to  safe 

instinct.  .  ,         , 

action  must  always  be  adequate  for  the 
duty  which  in  the  ancestral  past  they  have  had  to  per- 
form. To  automatic  mind  processes  inherited  from 
generation  to  generation  the  name  instinct  has  been 
given.  Whether  instinct  is  in  any  degree  inherited 
habit  or  whether  it  is  the  product  simply  of  natural 
selection  acting  upon  the  varying  methods  of  automatic 
response,  destroying  those  whose  responses  are  inade- 
quate, need  not  concern  us  now. 

The  homing  instinct  of  the  fur  seal,  concluding  its 
long  swim  of  three  thousand  miles  by  a  return  on  a  little 

island  hidden  in  the  arctic  fogs,  to  the 
Instinct  of  the  from  which  jt  wag  df.  fe 

fur  seal.  ,      .          .  * 

the  ice  six  months  before,  excites  our  as- 
tonishment. But  this  power  is  not  an  illustration  of 
animal  intelligence.  The  homing  instinct  with  the  fur 
seal  is  a  simple  necessity  of  life.  Without  it  the  indi- 
vidual would  be  lost  to  its  species.  Only  those  which 
have  the  instinct  in  perfection  can  return.  Only  those 
who  return  can  leave  descendants.  As  to  the  others  the 
rough  sea  tells  no  tales.  We  know  that  not  all  of  the 
fur  seals  who  set  forth  come  back.  To  those  who  do 
return  the  homing  instinct  has  proved  adequate.  And 
this  it  must  always  be  so  long  as  the  race  exists, 
for  general  inadequacy  would  mean  extinction  of  the 
species. 

The  intellect,   as   distinguished  from  lower  mental 
operations,  is  the  choice  among  responses  to  external 


266  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

conditions.     Complex  conditions  permit  a  variety  of  re- 
sponses.    Varying  conditions  demand  a  change  of  re- 
sponse.   This  demand  is  met  by  the  intel- 
Nature  of  the          }  The  int   H      t  rises      kh       complex 

intellect. 

or  changing  environment.     The  greater 

the  stress  on  a  race  of  thinking  creatures,  the  more  ac- 
tive and  effective  their  thoughts.  The  growth  of  man 
has  been  a  succession  of  triumphs  over  hard  conditions. 

The  races  which  have  been  successful 
Effect  of  have  arisen  from  adversity.  Prosperity 

adversity  on  ,  ,  ,    ,  . 

the  intellect  has    been    the   conQuest   of    hard   times. 

Human  progress  in  general  has  come 
through  the  falling  away  of  the  ineffective.  The  fool- 
killer  has  been  its  most  active  agent.  "  The  goodness 
and  the  severity  of  God  "  are  in  science  one  and  the 
same  thing,  as  they  were  in  the  thought  of  the  prophet. 
Its  essence  is  the  survival  of  those  who  can  live  and  act 
effectively  and  happily  in  the  conditions  which  surround 
human  and  animal  life.  The  power  of  safe  and  accurate 
response  to  external  conditions  is  the  essential  feature 
of  sanity.  The  inability  to  adapt  action  to  need  is  a 
character  of  insanity.  Insanity,  except  as  protected  by 
human  altruism,  means  death. 

The   difference    between    intellect   and    instinct    in 
lower   animals   may  be   illustrated  by  the  conduct  of 

certain  monkeys  brought  into  relation 
Intellect  of  the  with  new  experiences.  At  one  time  I 
monkey  people. 

had   two    adult   monkeys,    "  Bob      and 

"  Jocko,"  belonging  to  the  genus  Macacus.  Neither  of 
these  possessed  the  egg-eating  instinct.  At  the  same 
time  I  had  a  baby  monkey,  "  Mono,"  of  the  genus  Cer- 
copithecus.  Mono  had  never  seen  an  egg,  but  his  in- 
herited impulses  bore  a  direct  relation  to  feeding  on 
eggs,  just  as  the  heredity  of  Macacus  taught  the  others 
how  to  crack  nuts  or  to  peel  fruit. 


THE   EVOLUTION   OF   THE   MIND.  26/ 

To  each  of  these  monkeys  I  gave  an  egg,  the  first 
that  any  of  them  had  ever  seen. 

The  baby  monkey,  Mono,  being  of  an  egg-eating 
race,  devoured  his  egg  by  the  operation  of  instinct  or 
inherited  habit.  On  being  given  the  egg  for  the  first 
time,  he  cracked  it  against  his  upper  teeth,  making  a 
hole  in  it,  and  sucked  out  all  the  substance.  Then  hold- 
ing the  egg-shell  up  to  the  light  and  seeing  that  there 
was  no  longer  anything  in  it,  he  threw  it  away.  All  this 
he  did  mechanically,  automatically,  and  it  was  just  as 
well  done  with  the  first  egg  he  ever  saw  as  with  any 
other  he  ate.  All  eggs  since  offered  him  he  has  treated 
in  the  same  way. 

The  monkey  Bob  took  the  egg  for  some  kind  of 
nut.  He  broke  it  against  his  upper  teeth  and  tried  to 
pull  off  the  shell,  when  the  inside  ran  out  and  fell  on 
the  ground.  He  looked  at  it  for  a  moment  in  bewilder- 
ment, took  both  hands  and  scooped  up  the  yolk  and  the 
sand  with  which  it  was  mixed  and  swallowed  the  whole. 
Then  he  stuffed  the  shell  itself  into  his  mouth.  This  act 
was  not  instinctive.  It  was  the  work  of  pure  reason. 
Evidently  his  race  was  not  familiar  with  the  use  of  eggs 
and  had  acquired  no  instincts  regarding  them.  He 
would  do  it  better  next  time.  Reason  is  an  inefficient 
agent  at  first,  a  weak  tool ;  but  when  it  is  trained  it  be- 
comes an  agent  more  valuable  and  more  powerful  than 
any  instinct. 

The  monkey  Jocko  tried  to  eat  the  egg  offered  him 
in  much  the  same  way  that  Bob  did,  but,  not  liking  the 
taste,  he  threw  it  away. 

The  low  intelligence  of  the  lower  animals — as  the 
fishes — may  be  at  times  worse  than  none  at  all.  If  mental 
development  were  a  real  advantage  to  fishes  it  would 
arise  through  natural  selection.  The  fishes  taken  in 
a  large  pound  net,  as  I  have  observed  them  in  Lake 


268  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

Michigan,  can  not  escape  from  it  because  they  have  not 
intelligence  enough  to  find  the  opening  through  which 
they  have  entered.     If,  however,  a  loon  enters  the  net 
the  fishes  become  frightened  and  "  lose  their  heads." 
In  this  case  they  will  sooner  or  later  all  escape,  for  they 
cease  to   hunt  about  ineffectively  for  an  opening,  and 
flee  automatically  in  straight  lines,  and  these  straight 
lines  will  in  time  bring  them  to  the  open  door  of  the  net. 
Wild  animals  learn  to  avoid  poisonous  plants  by  in- 
stinct.     Those  who   have  not  an  inherited  dislike  for 
these  plants  perish.    When  the  animals  are  brought  into 
contact  with  vegetation  unknown  to  their  ancestors  this 
instinct  fails  them.     Hence  arises  in  California  the  dan- 
ger from  "  loco  weeds,"  as  certain  species  of  wild  vetches 
are  called.      These  plants  produce  temporary  or  per- 
manent insanity  or  paralysis  of   nerve  centres.      The 
native  ponies  avoid  them,  but  imported  animals  do  not, 
and   often    fall  victims  to  their  nerve-poisoning   influ- 
ence.    In  the  long  run,  only  those  survive  who  dislike 
the  "  loco-weed  "  and  avoid  it  instinctively. 

The  confusion  of  highly  perfected  instinct  with  in- 
tellect is  very  common  in  popular  discussions.     Instinct 
grows   weak    and   less    accurate   in   its 
Intellect  the  automatic  obedience  as  the  intellect  be- 

choice  of  .......  -r.     i     • 

comes  available  in  its  place.  Both  in- 
tellect and  instinct  are  outgrowths  from 
the  simple  reflex  response  to  external  conditions.  But 
instinct  insures  a  single  definite  response  to  the  cor- 
responding stimulus.  The  intellect  has  a  choice  of  re- 
sponses. In  its  lower  stages  it  is  vacillating  and  inef- 
fective ;  but  as  its  development  goes  on  it  becomes 
alert  and  adequate  to  the  varied  conditions  of  life.  It 
grows  with  the  need  for  improvement.  It  will  therefore 
become  impossible  for  the  complexity  of  life  to  outgrow 
the  adequacy  of  man  to  adapt  himself  to  its  conditions. 


THE    EVOLUTION   OF   THE   MIND.  269 

Many  animals  currently  believed  to  be  of  high  in- 
telligence are  not  so.  The  fur  seal  just  mentioned,  for 

example,  finds  its  way  back  from  the 
Intellect  of  the  }  gwim  Qf  twQ  Qr  three  thousand 

fur  seal. 

miles  through  a  foggy  and  stormy  sea, 

and  is  never  too  late  or  too  early  in  arrival.  The 
female  fur  seal  goes  two  hundred  miles  to  her  feeding 
grounds  in  summer,  leaving  the  pup  on  the  shore. 
After  a  week  or  two  she  returns  to  find  him  within  a 
few  rods  of  the  rocks  where  she  had  left  him.  Both 
mother  and  young  know  each  other  by  call  and  by 
odour,  and  neither  are  ever  mistaken,  though  ten  thou- 
sand other  pups  and  other  mothers  occupy  the  same 
rookery.  But  this  is  not  intelligence.  It  is  simply  in- 
stinct, because  it  has  no  element  of  choice  in  it.  What- 
ever its  ancestors  were  forced  to  do  the  fur  seal  does  to 
perfection.  Its  instincts  are  perfect  as  clockwork,  and 
the  necessities  of  migration  must  keep  them  so.  But  if 
brought  into  new  conditions  it  is  dazed  and  stupid.  It 
can  not  choose  when  different  lines  of  action  are  pre- 
sented. 

The  Bering  Sea  Commission  once  made  an  experi- 
ment on  the  possibility  of  separating  the  young  male 
fur  seals,  or  "  killables,"  from  the  old  ones  in  the  same 
band.  The  method  was  to  drive  them  through  a  wooden 
chute  or  runway  with  two  valve-like  doors  at  the  end. 
These  animals  can  be  driven  like  sheep,  but  to  sort  them 
in  the  way  proposed  proved  impossible.  The  most  ex- 
perienced males  would  beat  their  noses  against  a  closed 
door,  if  they  had  seen  a  seal  before  them  pass  through 
it.  That  this  door  had  been  shut  and  another  opened 
beside  it  passed  their  comprehension.  They  could  not 
choose  the  new  direction.  In  like  manner  a  male  fur 
seal  will  watch  the  killing  and  skinning  of  his  mates 
with  perfect  composure.  He  will  sniff  at  their  blood 


270  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

with  languid  curiosity.  So  long  as  it  is  not  his  own  it 
does  not  matter.  That  it  may  be  his  own  in  a  minute 
or  two  he  can  not  foresee. 

The  study  of  the  development  of  mind  in  animals 
and  men  gives  no  support  to  the  mediaeval  idea  that 
the  mind  exists  as  an  entity  apart  from  the  organ 

through  which  it  operates.     This  "cla- 
The  clavier  yier   the         ..   of  the   mind    that   the 

theory  of  mind.  .  .  .  *  ... 

resides  in  the  brain,  playing  upon  the 

cells  as  a  musician  upon  the  chords  of  a  piano,  finds  no 
warrant  in  fact.  So  far  as  the  evidence  goes,  we  know 
of  no  ego*  except  that  which  arises  from  the  co-ordina- 

*  That  what  we  really  know  of  human  personality  tells  the 
whole  story  of  it,  no  one  should  maintain.  It  is  well,  how- 
ever, not  to  ascribe  to  it  entities  and  qualities  of  which  we  know 
nothing.  Huxley  well  says  :  "  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the 
further  science  advances,  the  more  extensively  and  consistently 
will  all  the  phenomena  be  represented  by  materialistic  formula? 
and  symbols.  But  the  man  of  science  who,  forgetting  the  limits 
of  philosophical  inquiry,  slides  from  these  formulae  and  symbols 
into  what  is  commonly  understood  by  materialism,  seems  to  me 
to  place  himself  on  a  level  with  the  mathematician  who  should 
mistake  the  x's  and  y's  with  which  he  works  his  problems  for  real 
entities  ;  and  with  this  further  disadvantage  as  compared  with 
the  mathematician,  that  the  blunders  of  the  latter  are  of  no  prac- 
tical consequence,  while  the  errors  of  systematic  materialism  may 
paralyze  the  energies  and  destroy  the  beauty  of  life. 

"We  live,"  continues  Huxley,  "in  a  world  which  is  full  of 
misery  and  ignorance,  and  the  plain  duty  of  each  and  all  of  us  is 
to  try  to  make  the  little  corner  he  can  influence  somewhat  less 
miserable  and  somewhat  less  ignorant  than  it  was  before  he 
entered  it.  To  do  this  effectually  it  is  necessary  to  be  fully  pos- 
sessed of  two  beliefs — the  first,  that  the  order  of  nature  is  ascer- 
tainable  by  our  faculties  to  an  extent  which  is  practically  unlim- 
ited ;  the  second,  that  our  volition  counts  for  something  as  a 
condition  of  the  course  of  events. 

"  Each  of  these  beliefs  can  be  verified  experimentally  as  often 
as  we  like  to  try.  Each,  therefore,  stands  upon  the  strongest 


THE   EVOLUTION   OF   THE   MIND.  271 

tion  cf  the  nerve  cells.     All  consciousness  is  "  colonial 

consciousness,"  the  product  of  co-operation.     It  stands 

related  to  the  action  of  individual  cells 

Colonial  much  as  the  content  of  a  poem  with  the 

consciousness.  . 

words  or  letters  composing  it.  Its  ex- 
istence is  a  phenomenon  of  co-operation.  The  /in  man 
is  the  expression  of  the  co-working  of  the  processes  and 
impulses  of  the  brain.  The  brain  is  made  of  individual 
cells,  just  as  England  is  made  of  individual  men.  To 
say  that  England  wills  a  certain  deed,  or  owns  a  certain 
territory,  or  thinks  a  certain  thought,  is  no  more  a  figure 
of  speech  than  to  say  that  "  I  will,"  "  I  own,"  or  "  I 
think."  The  "  England  "  is  the  expression  of  union  of 
the  individual  wills  and  thoughts  and  ownerships  of 
Englishmen.  Similarly,  my  "  Ego  "  is  the  expression  of 
the  aggregate  force  resulting  from  co-ordination  of  the 
elements  that  make  up  my  body. 

The  old  dictum  of  the  philosopher,  "  I  think,  there- 
fore I  am,"  is  not  literally  and  wholly  true.     "  We  think, 
therefore  we  are,"  we  the  aggregation  of 

ogito,  ^  brain  cells,  would  be  quite  as  truthful. 

But  we  brain  cells  do  not  think  indi- 
vidually ;  only  collectively  or  colonially.  So  no  single 
sentence  can  express  the  whole  truth,  nor  can  a  trust- 
worthy philosophy  grow  out  of  any  single  psychological 
axiom. 

The  development  of  the  character  is  the  formation 
of  the  ego.  It  is  in  itself  the  co-ordination  of  the  ele- 
ments of  heredity,  the  bringing  into  union  of  warring 

foundation  upon  which  any  belief  can  rest,  and  forms  one  of  our 
highest  truths.  If  we  find  that  the  ascertainment  of  the  order  of 
nature  is  facilitated  by  using  one  terminology  or  one  set  of  sym- 
bols rather  than  another,  it  is  our  clear  duty  to  use  the  former ; 
and  no  harm  can  accrue  so  long  as  we  bear  in  mind  that  we  are 
dealing  merely  with  terms  and  symbols." 


272  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

tendencies  and  irrelevant  impulses  left  us  by  our  ances- 
tors. The  child  is  a  mixture  of  imperfectly  related 

impulses  and  powers.  It  is  a  mosaic  of 
Development  ancestral  heredity.  Its  growth  into  per- 
of  the  ego.  J 

sonahty  is  the  process  of  bringing  these 

elements  into  relation  to  each  other. 

In  his  study  of  the  phenomena  of  "  conversion," 
Edwin  Diller  Starbuck  gives  this  view  of  the  physio- 
logical phenomena  associated  with  the 
ing  development  of  personality,  the  build- 
ing up  of  a  self  by  a  process  which 
"is  primarily  unselfing."  "It  is  pretty  well  known," 
Dr.  Starbuck  says,  "that  the  quality  of  mind  is  much 
dependent  upon  the  fineness  of  nervous  structure.  The 
child  has  about  as  many  nerve  cells  as  the  adult.  They 
differ  from  those  of  the  adult  in  form.  Those  of  the 
child  are  mostly  round,  whereas  those  of  the  adult  have 
often  very  many  branches  with  which  they  connect  with 
the  other  cells.  Nervous  growth  seems  to  consist  large- 
ly in  the  formation  of  new  nervous  connections.  The 
rapid  growth  at  puberty  probably  means  that  at  that 
time  there  is  a  great  increase  in  nervous  branching. 
The  increased  ramification  of  nervous  tissue  probably 
determines  the  ability  for  seeing  in  general  terms,  for 
intellectual  grasp,  and  for  spiritual  insight.  The  rapid 
formation  of  new  nerve  connections  in  early  adolescence 
may  be  the  cause  of  the  physiological  unrest  and  men- 
tal distress  that  intensifies  into  what  we  have  called  the 
sense  of  incompleteness  which  precedes  conversion. 
The  mind  becomes  a  ferment  of  half-formed  ideas,  as 
the  brain  is  a  mesh  of  poorly  organized  parts.  This 
creates  uncertainty,  unhappiness,  dejection,  and  the  like, 
because  there  is  not  the  power  of  free  mental  activity. 
The  person  is  restless  to  be  born  into  a  larger  world 
that  is  dimly  felt.  Finally,  through  wholesome  sugges- 


THE    EVOLUTION   OF   THE    MIND. 


273 


tions  or  normal  development,  order  comes  and  then  ew 
world  dawns.  Often  some  emotional  stress  or  shock 
strikes  harmony  into  the  struggling  imperfection  and 
truth  comes  like  a  flash." 

The  evil  effect  of  the  excess  of  sense  impressions  and 
of  thought  dissociated  from  will  and  action  has  been 

noted  many  times  and  in  many  ways. 
Sensation  with-  When  men  haye  made  themselves  wise 
out  action.  .  ,  ,  , 

with    the  lore   of   others,   the   learning 

which  ends  in  self  and  does  not  spend  itself  on  action, 
they  have  been  neither  virtuous  nor  happy.  "  Much 
learning  is  a  weariness  of  the  flesh."  Thought  without 
action  ends  in  intense  fatigue  of  the  soul,  the  disgust 
with  all  "  the  sorry  scheme  of  things  entire,"  which  is 
the  mark  of  the  unwholesome  and  insane  philosophy  of 
pessimism.  This  philosophy  finds  its  condemnation  in 
the  fact  that  it  has  never  yet  been  translated  into  pure 
and  helpful  life. 

In    like   manner   sentiment    not  woven  into  action 
fails  to  be  a  source  of   effectiveness  or   of   happiness. 
"  If   thou   lovest    me,"   said    Christ    to 
Simon  Peter,  "  feed  my  lambs."     Genu- 
ine love  works  itself  out  in   self-spend- 
ing, in   doing   something   for  the  help  or  pleasure  of 
those  beloved.     Religious  sentimentalism,  whatever  the 
form  it  may  take,  if  dissociated  from  action,  has  only 
evil  effects.     Appeal  to  the  emotions  for  emotion's  sake 
has  been  a  great  factor  in  human  deterioration.     Much 

that  has  been  called  "  degeneration  "  in 
Degeneration.  ,  ....... 

modern  social  life  is  due  to  the  pre- 
dominance of  sensory  impressions  over  motor  move- 
ment. The  mind  passes  through  a  round  of  sensations, 
emotions  called  up  by  literature,  music,  art,  religion, 
which  may  not  have  any  direct  bearing  on  human  con- 
duct. Their  aggregate  influence  on  the  idle  brain  is 


274  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

always  evil.  And  the  misery  of  motor  paralysis,  of  in- 
tellectual pauperism,  is  felt  as  the  disease  of  ennui. 
The  remedy  for  evils  of  revery,  ennui,  narcotism,  and  the 
like,  is  to  be  found  in  action.  The  knowledge  of  this 
fact  constitutes  the  strength  of  the  Salvation  Army 
movement.  The  victim  of  mental  deterioration,  the 
"  opium  fiend,"  or  the  inebriate  is  given  something  to  do. 
He  is  not  to  wear  out  the  little  force  he  has  left  in 
ineffective  remorse.  Better  let  him  beat  a  big  drum  and 
make  night  hideous  with  unmusical  song  than  to  settle 
down  to  the  dry  rot  of  revery  or  the  wet  rot  of  emotional 
regret.  Something  to  do  and  the  will  to  act  furnishes 
the  remedy  for  all  forms  of  social  or  personal  discontent. 
Not  every  sense  impression  can  demand  distinct  re- 
sponse. It  is  the  function  of  the  intellect  to  sift  these 

impressions,  turning  over  into  action 
The  power  o  .  tnose  jn  which  action  is  desirable 

of  attention.  . 

or  wise.     The  power  of  attention  is  one 

of  the  most  valuable  attributes  of  the  trained  mind. 
And  the  essential  of  this  power  is  in  the  suppression  by 
the  will  of  all  impulses  which  do  not  concern  the  pres- 
ent need  of  action. 

As  the  normal  workings  of  the  mind  are  reducible  to 
sensation,  thought,  will,  and   action,  so   the   abnormal 

workings  may  be  due  to  defects  of  any 
Defects  in  men-  one  of  ^^  elements.  We  may  have 
tal  operation. 

defects  of  sensation,  defects  of  thought, 

vacillation  of  will,  and  inaccuracy  of  action.  Hyperses- 
thesia,  anaesthesia,  sensory  weakness,  appear  in  the  un- 
certain action  of  the  muscles  guided  by  the  ill-informed 
or  over-informed  brain.  The  defects  and  diseases  of  the 
brain  itself  appear  in  many  ways,  ranging  from  oddity  or 
folly  to  the  extreme  of  idiocy  or  mania.  Most  of  the 
"psychic  phenomena"  along  "the  borderland  of  spirit," 
which  occupy  a  large  part  in  current  literature,  are  char- 


THE   EVOLUTION   OF   THE   MIND. 


275 


acters  of  insanity.     The  phenomena  of  hysteria,  faith 
cure,  openness  to  suggestion,  subjective  imagery,  mys- 
ticism, are   not  indications  of  spiritual 

Phenomena  strength,  but  of  decay  and  disintegration 

of  hysteria. 

of  the  nerves.  The  ecstasy  of  unbal- 
anced religious  excitement  and  the  stupor  of  a  drunken 
debauch  may  belong  to  the  same  category  of  mental  phe- 
nomena. Both  point  toward  moral  and  spiritual  decay. 
There  are  no  occult  or  "  latent  powers  "  of  the  mind  ex- 
cept those  which  have  become  useless  in  changed  con- 
ditions, or  which  belong  to  the  process  of  disintegration. 
If  a  man  crosses  his  eyes  and  is  thus  enabled  to  see  ob- 
jects double,  we  do  not  regard  him  as  having  developed 
a  "  latent  power  "  of  vision.  He  has  simply  destroyed 
the  normal  co-ordination  of  such  power.  One  does 
not  increase  the  strength  of  a  rope  by  untwisting  its 
strands.  The  effectiveness  of  life  depends  upon  the  co- 
ordination and  co-operation  of  the  parts  of  the  nervous 
system.  Its  strands  must  be  kept  together.  To  move 
in  a  state  of  revery,  "  to  live  in  two  worlds  at  once,"  to 
be  unable  to  separate  memory  pictures  from  realities, 
all  these  are  forms  of  nervous  disintegration.  Every 
phase  of  them  can  be  found  in  the  madhouse.  The  end 
of  such  conditions  is  death.  The  healthy  mind  should 
combat  all  tendencies  toward  disintegration.  It  can  be 
clean  and  strong  only  by  being  true. 

In  like  manner  the  influence  of  all  drugs  which  affect 
the  nervous  system  must  be  in  the  direction  of  disinte- 
gration.    The   healthy  mind   stands   in 
Effect  of  drugs.         .  ,  ...  .  ,    .  T 

clear  and  normal  relations  with  Nature. 

It  feels  pain  as  pain.  It  feels  action  as  pleasure.  The 
drug  which  conceals  pain  or  gives  a  false  pleasure  when 
pleasure  does  not  exist  forces  a  lie  upon  the  nervous 
system.  The  drug  which  disposes  to  revery  rather  than 
to  work,  which  makes  us  feel  well  when  we  are  not  well, 


2^6  FOOT-NOTES  TO  EVOLUTION. 

destroys  the  sanity  of  life.  All  stimulants,  narcotics, 
and  tonics  which  affect  the  nervous  system  in  whatever 
way  reduce  the  truthfulness  of  sensation,  thought,  and 
action.  Toward  insanity  all  such  influences  lead;  and 
their  effect,  slight  though  it  be,  is  of  the  same  nature  as 
mania.  The  man  who  would  see  clearly,  think  truth- 
fully, and  act  effectively  must  avoid  them  all.  Emer- 
gency aside,  he  can  not  safely  force  upon  his  nervous 
system  even  the  smallest  falsehood.  And  here  lies  the 
one  great  unanswerable  argument  for  total  abstinence ; 
not  abstinence  from  alcohol  alone,  but  from  all  nerve 
poisons  and  emotional  excesses.  The  man  who  would 
be  sane  must  avoid,  emergencies  excepted,  all  nerve 
excitants,  nerve  soothers,  and  "  nerve  foods,"  as  well  as 
trances,  ecstasies,  and  similar  abnormal  relations  to  the 
external  world.  If  he  would  keep  his  mind  he  must 
never  "  lose  his  head  "  save  in  the  rest  of  normal  sleep. 

In  general,  great  work  is  not  accomplished  under  the 
influence  of  drugs  or  stimulants.  The  great  thoughts 
and  great  deeds  which  move  the  world  are  those  of  men 
who  live  soberly  and  whose  nervous  systems  record 
truthfully  the  facts  of  nature  and  of  life. 

What  is  true  of  man  is  true  of  animals,  and  true  of 
nations  as  well.  For  a  nation  is  an  aggregation  of 

many  men  as  a  man  is  a   coalition   of 
The  mind  m  c^       Jn  the   ufe    Qf    &    nad 

of  nations. 

Lowell  tells   us,  "three  roots  bear  up 

Dominion — Knowledge,  Will,  the  third  Obedience,  the 
great  tap-root  of  all."  This  relation  corresponds  to  the 
nervous  sequence  in  the  individual.  And  as  in  general 
the  ills  of  humanity  are  due  to  untruthfulness  in  thought 
and  action,  so  are  the  collective  ills  of  nations  due  to 
national  folly,  vacillation,  and  disobedience.  The  laws 
of  national  greatness  expand  themselves  from  the  laws 
which  govern  the  growth  of  the  single  cell. 


XI. 

DEGENERATION. 

BY  degeneration  is  meant  the  process  by  which  a 
living  being  changes  for  the  worse.  This  implies  a  nar- 
rowing range  of  powers  and  capabilities.  The  word  is 
opposed  in  meaning  to  change  for  the  better,  which  we 
call  progress  or  development. 

Throughout  the  animal  and  vegetable  kingdoms  may 
be  found  instances  of  degenerate  types.     There  are  spe- 
cies or  groups  of  species  which  have  de- 
Decline  in  range    dined  jn  complexity  of  structure   and 
of  activities.  ..... 

range  of   activities   as    compared  with 

their  ancestors.  Degeneration  of  type  appears  when- 
ever the  range  of  competition  is  narrowed  or  incentive 
to  activity  lessened.  It  takes  place  whenever  a  relaxa- 
tion of  the  struggle  for  existence  permits  life  on  a  lower 
plane  of  activity  or  with  less  perfect  adaptation  to  con- 
ditions. Thus  a  land  animal  transferred  to  the  sea  has 
its  range  of  activity  narrowed.  There  is  competition 
from  fewer  quarters,  and  a  corresponding  decline  of 
competitive  structures  takes  place. 

The  most  striking  cases  of  degeneration  are  those  of 
quiescent  animals,  and  parasitic  animals  and  plants,  as 

compared  with  their  free-swimming  self- 
Quiescent  dependent  ancestors.  Examples  of  de- 
animals.  .  ,  ,  _, 

generate  quiescent  animals  are  the  Tum- 

cates.    These  creatures,  descended  from  fishlike  ances- 

277 


278  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

tors,  are  reduced  to  motionless  sacs,  buried  in  the  sand 
or  anchored  to  rocks  or  wharves.  The  evidence  of  their 
origin  is  found  in  the  fact  that  the  young  Tunicate  is 

tadpole-shaped,  with  a  rudimentary  back- 
Tunicates.  .  ,  .     , 

bone,  and  has  the  motions  and  in  large 

degree  the  structure  of  the  fish.  With  the  loss  of  power 
of  locomotion  the  structures  on  which  locomotion  de- 
pends also  disappear. 

Still  more  marked  is  the  degeneration  of  parasites. 
It  is  a  universal  rule  that  all  creatures  dependent  on 
others  for  support  lose  their  power  of 
self-help.     Parasitic    insects   lose    their 
wings  and  are  confined  to  the  bodies  of 
those    unwillingly  made   their  hosts.     Parasitic  worms 
are  the  simplest  of  their  kind.     Insects  feeding  on  the 
juices  of  plants  which  they  suck  without  moving  be- 
come reduced  to  mere  living  scales. 

Perhaps  the  most  remarkable  example  of  the  degen- 
eration of   parasitism    is   that   seen    in    the  crustacean 

called  Sacculina.    This  creature  appears 
Saccuhna.  .  ...          .'.*«» 

as  a  simple  sac  attached  to  the  body  of 

the  crab,  into  which  its  root  processes  or  blood  vessels 
extend.  When  it  is  hatched  from  the  egg  it  is  similar 
in  form  to  a  young  crab,  independent  and  free-swim- 
ming. It  soon  attaches  itself  to  some  adult  crab,  into 
the  body  of  which  it  extends  its  processes.  It  loses  its 
power  of  locomotion,  and  the  limbs  all  disappear.  Liv- 
ing at  the  expense  of  others,  self-activity  is  not  de- 
manded, and  its  position  protects  it  from  competition  to 
which  free-swimming  crabs  are  subject.  It  becomes 
degraded  into  a  parasitic  sac,  with  no  organs  except 
a  nervous  ganglion,  its  ovaries,  and  root  processes. 
This  is  the  female  Sacculina,  and  parasitic  upon  this  is 
the  smaller  and  still  more  degraded  male  of  the  same 
species. 


DEGENERATION. 


279 


The  Sacculina  is  the  type  of  race  degeneration  among 
animals  and  plants.  When  the  stimulus  to  individual 
activity  is  lowered  and  the  conditions  of 
environment  are  such  that  destruction 
does  not  follow  reduced  activity,  we 
have  continuous  degeneration.  This  is 
the  condition  of  animal  pauperism.  The 
same  general  laws  hold  good  among  men.  Inactivity  and 


Animal  pauper- 
ism homologous 
with  human 
pauperism. 


FlG.  19. — Sacculina  after  leaving  the  egg.    (After  Lang.) 

dependence,  protection  in  idleness,  bring  about  deterio- 
ration and  end  in  weakness,  incapacity,  and  extinction. 


280 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


It  is  true  that  all  advance  in  one  structure  implies 
degradation  of  some  other.  This  is  the  so-called  "  law 
of  compensation."  The  specialization 
of  the  human  hand,  for  example,  has  been 
at  the  cost  of  the  human  foot.  The 
power  to  live  by  his  wits  has  taken  from  man  something 
of  the  strength  and  spryness  of  his  apelike  ancestors. 


Law  of 
compensation 


FIG.  20. — Sacculina  attach-     FIG.  21. — Sacculina  ;  FIG.  22.  —  Saccu- 
ing   itself   to   the   crab.  an     early     stage,     lina  after  absorp- 

(After  Lang.)  (After  Lang.)  tion  of  the  limbs. 

(After  Lang.) 

Any  organ  tends  to  degenerate  when  its  highest  func- 
tion loses  importance  or  is  replaced  by  some  other.  To 
have  one's  food  cooked  means  the  reduction  of  the 
lower  jaw  and  its  muscles.  For  a  bird  to  trust  to  its 
wings  means  the  decline  of  the  strength  of  its  feet. 
Reduction  of  unused  parts  is  a  universal  rule  in  organic 
development.  Decline  in  all  parts  is  the  essential  mean- 
ing of  degeneration. 

In  the  current  discussions  of  the  day  the  word  de- 


DEGENERATION. 


28l 


generation  is  taking  an  important  part.     Degeneration 
is  known  among  men  as  well  as  among  the  lower  animals 


FIG.  23. — Adult  Sacculina  attached  by  root 
processes  to  the  crab.     (After  Lang.) 


FIG.  24. — Section  of 
mature  Sacculina. 
(After  Lang.) 


or  plants.  It  is  governed  by  similar  laws.  The  condi- 
tions of  human  degeneration  are  essentially  those  of 
degeneration  on  lower  forms.  The  causes  which  will  in 
the  long  run  transform  a  crab  to  a  Sacculina  will  make 
paupers  of  the  descendants  of  parasitic  men.  As  it  is 
the  mind  that  makes  the  man,  the  essence  of  human 
degeneration  is  failure  of  the  nervous  structures  and 
functions.  It  means  decline  in  the  accuracy  of  thought 
and  the  veracity  of  action.  The  soundness  of  the  ma- 
chinery of  response  to  external  conditions  determines, 
in  general,  the  life  and  character  of  man.  Degeneration 
in  man  is  therefore  "  a  morbid  deviation  from  the  moral 
type,"  so  far  as  nerve  functions  are  concerned. 

Personal  degeneration  comes  naturally  with  the  pe- 
riod of  old  age.     The  compound  animal  or  "  colonial 


282 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


organism  "  must  break  down  sooner  or  later,  man  not 
less  than  others.     Senility  brings  even  to  the  best  some 

form  of  nerve  decay.     The  wisest  man 
Degeneration  of     mugt  cQme  to  second  childhood       genil. 

senility.  f 

ity  may  come  prematurely  as  a  result  of 

influences  adverse  to  mental  and 
physical  activity.  These  influences 
are  manifold  and  the  enumeration 


FIG.  25. — Sacculina  attached 
to  the  crab. 


FIG.  26. — Sacculina  with 
limbs  absorbed. 


of  causes  and  results  of  the  weakness  of  old  age  need 
not  be  attempted  here. 

Race  degeneration,  or  continuous  decline  from  gen- 
eration to  generation,  may  be  distinguished  from  the 
wearing  out  of  the  individual.  The  for- 
mer results  from  the  continuous  preser- 
vation of  the  unfit.  As  the  destruction 
of  the  unadapted  is  the  chief  element  of  race  progress, 
so  is  their  survival  the  chief  element  in  race  decay.  De- 
generation occurs  when  weakness  mates  with  weakness ; 


Race 
degeneration. 


DEGENERATION. 


283 


when  incentives  to  individual  action  are  taken  away, 
without  reduction  in  security  of  life,  and  when  the  unfit 
are  sheltered  from  the  consequences  of  their  folly, 
weakness,  or  perversity.  The  increased  effectiveness  of 
altruism  which  goes  with  race  progress  furnishes  a  shel- 
ter under  which  race  decay  goes  on.  The  growth  of 
wisdom  makes  folly  safe.  At  the  same  time  the  growth 
of  wisdom  works  the  death  of  fools  when  they  are 
brought  into  life-and-death  competition  with  those 
stronger  and  wiser. 

In  the  open  competition  of  life  the  lineage  of  degen- 
eracy is  a  short  one.  Each  individual  man  is  a  link 

in  the  chain  of  life.  His  intellect  is  its 
Lineage  of  de-  guardian  If  the  safeguard  is  weak,  the 
generacy  short.  ~  ,  -  ,T  j 

link  will  be   broken.      Under   ordinary 

conditions  of  freedom,  there  is  no  such  thing  as  bad 
heredity.  Our  ancestors  are  sound  and  sane  each  in  a 
fair  degree,  else  we  should  not  have  seen  the  light. 

But  with  all  this  the  withered  branch  may  occur 
on  the  most  vigorous  trees.  Some  descendant  will  show 

defects  in  nervous  system  or  in  balance 
Withered  of  qualities>  He  will  develop  weakness 

branches.  .  .  .  . 

or  excess  in  sensitiveness  or  in  motor 

response,  or  his  mental  operations  will  show  a  lack  of 
that  accuracy  we  call  common  sense.  Such  conditions, 
if  inborn  through  germ  variation,  may  become  heredi- 
tary. A  degenerate  person  may  under  certain  condi- 
tions be  parent  of  a  race  of  degenerates  or  "  mattoids." 

The  conditions  of  preservation  of  a  decaying  race 
may  be  considered  under  seven  heads. 

The  unfit  may  be  preserved  as  objects  of  charity. 
"  Charity,"  says  a  French  writer,  "causes half  the  suffer- 
ing she  relieves;  but  she  can  not  relieve  half  the  suffer- 
ing she  has  caused."  Unwise  charity  is  responsible  for 
half  the  pauperism  of  the  world.  That  pauperism  has 


284  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

become  perpetual  is  due  in  part  to  the  charity  that,  in 

aiding  the  poor,  helps  pauperism  to  mate  with  pauper- 
ism.    It  is  the  duty  of  true  charity  to 

Degeneration         remove  the  causes  of  weakness  and  suf- 

through  chanty. 

fermg.    It  is  equally  her  duty  to  see  that 

weakness  and  suffering  are  not  needlessly  perpetuated. 

Startling  results  may  follow  from  the  selective  breed- 
ing and  preservation  of  paupers.     In  the  valley  of  Aosta 
in  northern  Italy,  and  in  other  Alpine 

resions>  is  found  the  form  of  idiocv 

known  as  cretinism.  What  is  the  primi- 
tive cause  of  the  cretin,  and  what  is  the  causal  connec- 
tion of  cretinism  with  goitre,  a  disease  of  the  thyroid 
glands  which  always  accompanies  it,  I  do  not  know. 

It  suffices  for  our  purpose  to  notice  that  the  severe 
military  selection  which  ruled  in  Switzerland,  Savoy, 
and  Lombardy  for  many  generations  took  the  strongest 
and  healthiest  peasants  to  the  wars,  and  left  the  idiot 
and  goitrous  to  carry  on  the  affairs  of  life  at  home.  To 
bear  a  goitre  was  to  exempt  from  military  services. 
Thus  in  some  regions-the  disease  has  been  a  local  badge 
of  honour.  It  is  said  that  when  iodine  lozenges  were 
given  to  the  children  of  Savoy  in  the  hope  of  prevent- 
ing the  enlargement  and  degeneration  of  the  thyroid 
gland,  mothers  would  take  this  remedy  away  from  the 
boys,  preferring  the  goitre  to  military  service. 

In  the  city  of  Aosta  the  goitrous  cretin  has  been  for 
centuries  an  object  of  charity.  The  idiot  has  received 
generous  support,  while  the  poor  farmer  or  labourer  with 
brains  and  no  goitre  has  had  the  severest  of  struggles. 
In  the  competition  of  life  a  premium  has  thus  been 
placed  on  imbecility  and  disease.  The  cretin  has  mated 
with  the  cretin,  the  goitre  with  the  goitre,  and  charity 
and  religion  have  presided  over  the  union.  The  result 
is  that  idiocy  is  multiplied  and  intensified.  The  cretin 


DEGENERATION. 


285 


of  Aosta  has  been  developed  as  a  new  species  of  man. 
In  fair  weather  the  roads  about  the  city  are  lined  with 
these  awful  paupers — human  beings  with  less  intelli- 
gence than  the  goose,  with  less  decency  than  the  pig. 


FIG.  27. — A  cretin  of  Aosta.    (From  a  photograph  by  Dr.  J.  W.  Jenks.) 

The  asylum  for  cretins  in  Aosta  is  a  veritable  chamber 
of  horrors.  The  sharp  words  of  Whymper  are  fully  jus- 
tified : 

"A  large  proportion  of  the  cretins  who  will  be  born 
in  the  next  generation  will  undoubtedly  be  offsprings  of 


286 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


cretin  parents.  It  is  strange  that  self-interest  does  not 
lead  the  natives  of  Aosta  to  place  their  cretins  under 
such  restrictions  as  would  prevent  their  illicit  inter- 
course; and  it  is  still  more  surprising  to  find  the  Catho- 
lic Church  actually  legalizing  their  marriage.  There  is 


FIG.  28. — A  cretin  of  Aosta.     (After  Whymper.) 


something  horribly  grotesque  in  the  idea  of  solemnizing 
the  union  of  a  brace  of  idiots,  and,  since  it  is  well  known 
that  the  disease  is  hereditary  and  develops  in  successive 
generations,  the  fact  that  such  marriages  are  sanctioned 


DEGENERATION.  28/ 

is  scandalous  and  infamous."  (Whymper  ;  Scrambles 
among  the  Alps.) 

True  charity  would  give  these  creatures  not  less 
helpful  care,  but  a  care  which  would  guarantee  that  each 
individual  cretin  should  be  the  last  of  his  generation. 

In  isolation  as  under  charity,  weakness  may  mate 
with  weakness  and  perpetuate  degeneration.  The  clas- 
sical studies  of  Dr.  Dugdale  into  the 

in  natural  history of  the  sroup of  desen- 

erates  called  "the  Jukes"  shows  that 
the  conditions  of  the  slums  may  be  transferred  to  the 
forests.  Outside  of  the  swift  current  of  life  in  a  shel- 
tered nook  of  the  mountains  this  family 
of  cutthroats  and  prostitutes  found  a 
place  for  development.  The  crush  of  a  great  city  is 
in  some  degree  an  instrument  of  purification.  It  brings 
evil  and  weakness  into  close  competition  with  wisdom 
and  strength,  and  the  former  come  to  speedy  destruc- 
tion. The  evils  of  the  city  rise  from  corrosion  rather 
than  from  competition.  There  is  nothing  in  the  pure 
air  of  the  mountains  that  will  purify  the  lineage  of 
thieves  and  paupers.  Doubtless  the  fact  of  isolation 
and  freedom  from  stress  of  competition  has  been  a  fac- 
tor in  the  preservation  of  the  decaying  Jukes,  and  the 
same  conditions  bring  about  the  results  in  the  declining 
classes  driven  from  the  plains  to  the  mountains  in  other 
parts  of  the  world.  The  Great  Smoky  Mountains  are 
not  responsible  for  the  poor  whites  of 
3'  the  highlands  of  North  Carolina.  These 
people  belong  to  the  lineage  of  England's  pauperism 
transported  first  to  her  colonies,  afterward  driven  from 
the  plains  to  the  mountains  because  of  their  inability  to 
keep  slaves,  and  since  preserved  there  by  their  isola- 
tion from  new  currents  of  life.  In  like  manner,  the 
lowest  type  of  negroes  is  preserved  in  the  isolation  of 


288  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

the  black  belt  of  the  South,  the  swampy  regions  near 
the  sea,  in  which  white  people  can  not  live,  and  where 
the  negroes  are  not  subjected  to  the  stress  of  industrial 
competition. 

The  condition  of  slavery  is  one  favourable  for  human 
degeneration.  The  survival  of  the  docile  is  its  essential 
feature  in  slavery.  There  is  no  premium 
n  ^  Placed  on  individuality,  no  advantage  in 
intelligence,  and  a  positive  disadvantage 
in  the  impulses  of  self-direction.  A  slave  can  not  be  a 
man,  and  the  qualities  of  manhood  are  checked  and  de- 
stroyed in  slavery. 

In  the  slums  of  the  cities  similar  conditions  obtain. 
In  the  life  of  hopelessness  there  can  be  no  premium  on 
hope.  The  "artful  dodger  "  is  a  typical 
^  Product  of  the  natural  selection  of  the 
slums.  To  be  well  born  but  brought  up 
in  the  slums  means  to  be  born  to  premature  death.  The 
child  of  the  slums,  fitted  to  his  environment,  must  come 
of  the  lineage  of  moral  decay. 

In  the  tropics,  conditions  favouring  human  degen- 
eration are  constantly  present.     The   intense  heat  dis- 
courages   physical   or   mental   activity, 
Degeneration  in         hu        fa        H    h     ^^      {      fa      {     }  gur_ 

the  tropics.  ,K   3 , 

roundmgs  favours  the  weak,  the  vacil- 
lating, the  inert.  No  premium  is  placed  on  effort,  and 
there  is  developed  a  type  of  man  to  whom  effort  is  im- 
possible. The  conditions  of  degeneration  under  the 
tropics  closely  resemble  those  seen  under  ill-advised 
charity.  Nature  is  too  kind  and  too  indiscriminating. 
As  a  result,  we  have  as  pauper  races  the  descendants  of 
the  once  civilized  and  once  active  Arabs,  Egyptians, 
and  Saracens.  With  the  decline  of  effort  goes  the  fail- 
ure of  personal  will,  and  the  growth  of  the  philosophy 
of  fatalism,  in  which  the  human  will  is  held  to  be  of  no 


DEGENERATION.  289 

worth.  It  is  the  will  of  Allah  that  the  Arab  should  sleep 
in  filth,  and  die  the  death  of  rottenness.  It  is  related 
by  Edwin  H.  Woodruff,  that  not  long  ago  a  cesspool  in 
a  palace  at  Cairo  was  to  be  cleansed.  The  vault  was 
opened,  and  two  or  three  of  the  workmen  were  suffocated 
by  the  foul  gases.  "  It  is  Allah's  will,"  said  the  person 
in  authority,  "  it  is  Allah's  will  that  the  vault  shall  not 
be  disturbed."  So  it  was  closed  again,  that  its  foulness 
might  increase  for  another  century.  In  the  tropics  man 
knows  little  of  competition.  He  cares  not  for  time. 
The  best  man  is  the  laziest,  and  no  civilized  race  of  men 
has  yet  held  its  own  under  these  conditions.  The  strong 
races  were  born  of  hard  times,  they  have  fought  for  all 
they  have  had,  and  the  strength  of  those  they  have  con- 
quered has  entered  into  their  wills.  They  have  been 
selected  by  competition  and  sifted  by  the  elements. 
They  have  risen  through  struggle  and  they  have  gained 
through  mutual  help,  and  by  the  power  of  the  human 
will  they  have  made  the  earth  their  own. 

In   luxury,  again,  are  found  conditions  of  degener- 
ation.    When  one  has  all  that  he  wants,  there  is  little 
incentive  to    strive  for  anything  more. 

ati°n  ^     When  a  race  is  raised  ab°Ve  comPetition> 
there   is   no    premium   on  the  qualities 

that  make  for  life.  The  sheltered  life  does  not  favour 
progress.  Where  the  possibility  of  the  misery  of  want 
is  excluded  there  is  still  room  for  the  misery  of  ennui, 
the  pressure  of  existence  unresisted  by  effort.  Much  of 
that  degeneration  of  the  higher  classes  of  Europe,  which 
Nordau  has  attributed  to  the  "  inheritance  of  fatigue 
and  nerve-strain  of  civilization,"  is  simply  personal  and 
not  inherited.  It  is  the  natural  result  of  the  loss  of  per- 
sonal incentive  to  action.  It  is  the  laziness  and  weak- 
ness engendered  in  the  paupered  and  sheltered  life.  In 
the  society  in  which  this  form  of  degeneracy  appears, 


2QO 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


we  find  a  maximum  of  sense  impressions  and  a  minimum 

of  action.     Where  thought  does  not  go  over  into  action 

a  sort  of  mental  dyspepsia  is  produced. 

To   this   abnormal    condition   the   term 

"degeneration  "   has   been  applied,  but 

this  name  is  misleading,  because  it  implies  more  than 

the  actual  truth.  -r 

To  a  phase  of  degeneration  Mr.  Israel  Zangwill  has 
lately  applied  the   clever   designation   of  "  the   higher 
foolishness."     By  this  is  meant   unbal- 
anced action  and  expression  on  the  part 
foolishness. 

of  people  of  culture  or  education.     It 

is  act  or  speech  "  which  makes  the  judicious  grieve," 
on  the  part  of  those  supposed  to  know  better.  Such 
people  lacking  the  saving  grace  of  common  sense  are 
most  of  those  called  by  Nordau  "  degenerates."  With 
these  belong  the  "  monkey  geniuses "  of  Dr.  Hirsch, 
the  "  borderland  dwellers  "  of  Dr.  Maudsley,  the  "  bor- 
derlanders  "  of  Mr.  Stead,  the  "degeneres  superieurs  " 
of  Magnan,  the  "  mattoids  "  of  Lombroso,  and,  in  gen- 
eral, the  inspired  idiots  and  educated  fools  of  all  ages 
and  climes. 

These  people  have  in  common  the  quality  of  abnor- 
mal mental  action,  verging  into  insanity  on  the  one 
hand,  to  crime  on  another,  and  to  stupidity  on  the  third. 
They  are,  however,  distinguished  from  ordinary  idiots, 
or  lunatics,  or  criminals  by  some  notable  quality,  by  some 
power  of  action  or  expression  or  attribute  of  genius, 
which  causes  them  to  attract  public  notice. 

The  qualities  of  these  people  in  relation  to  art, 
literature,  and  religion  have  been  the 

Nordau  on  subject  of  the  remarkable  work  by  Max 

degeneration.  . 

Nordau  entitled  Degeneration. 

Nordau's  work  has  the  merit  of  a  picturesque  style. 
It  has  a  basis  of  truth,  and  contains  a  veritable  mine  of 


DEGENERATION. 


29I 


telling  quotations,  while  nowhere  in  literature  can  we 
find  a  more  merciless  arraignment  of  folly,  laxity,  and 
"rot"  as  expressed  in  literary  or  artistic  form. 

On  the  other  hand,  Nordau  himself  exhibits  some  of 
the  defects  which  he  criticises.  His  work  shows  a  de- 
cided lack  of  the  sense  of  perspective.  He  takes  him- 
self, and  especially  his  subjects,  too  seriously.*  He 
gives  no  scientific  analysis  of  the  symptoms  they  show, 
while  causes,  effects,  symptoms,  and  imitations  alike 
pass  with  him  as  evidences  of  degeneration.  His  as- 
sumption that  degeneration  among  the  higher  classes  is 
a  phenomenon  of  our  times  alone,  and  his  supposition 
that  it  is  the  inheritance  of  fatigue,  nervous  exhaus- 
tion, and  the  diseases  and  degeneration  conditioned  by 
them,  has  but  slight  foundation.  The  proposed  remedy 
of  Societies  for  Ethical  Culture  to  act  as  public  judges 
of  literature  and  art  seems  puerile,  and  it  is  not  clear 
that  his  proposed  Index  Expurgatorius  of  fool-litera- 
ture would  "  banish  the  writings  of  lunatics  from  the 
shelves  of  all  respectable  booksellers."  It  would  adver- 
tise rather  than  suppress. 

A  remedy  for  degeneration  can  not  be  applied  in 
any  easy  fashion.  Sanity  is  the  antidote  for  insanity, 
cleanliness  of  thought  and  action  in  life  for  folly  and 
crime.  It  is  true,  as  has  been  said,  that  "  vice,  crime, 
and  madness  are  called  by  different  names  only  through 
social  prejudice."  In  like  manner  virtue,  purity,  and 
wisdom  are  largely  convertible  terms.  The  sane  man 

is   like   a  well-made  watch — trained   to 
The  mattoid.  .  ,,  ,.  . 

keep  correct  time  under  all  conditions 

of  temptation,  pressure,  or  environment.  The  "  mat- 
toid"  is  full  of  "vibrancy";  he  is  affected  by  all  sorts 

*  "There  is  such  a  thing  as  nonsense,  and  when  a  man  has 
once  attained  to  that  deep  conception  you  may  be  sure  of  him 
ever  after." — BAGEHOT. 


292  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

of  conditions,  external  and  internal.  He  is  like  the 
watch  which  changes  its  rate  of  movement  at  all  sorts 
of  intervals,  that  will  run  off  the  whole  twenty-four 
hours  in  a  minute,  and  then  will  not  move  at  all  for  a 
day  to  come.  He  must  have  a  hard  head  who  would 
butt  against  the  stone  wall  of  society  and  make  an  im- 
pression upon  it.  The  sound  nervous  system  is  one 
well  buried  in  skull  and  flesh.  It  knows  not  the  "pride 
of  vibrancy,"  the  "  bliss  of  the  beautiful,"  nor  the  mys- 
tic "  sensations  of  the  elect  mind."  It  has  no  love  for 
the  "flowers  of  evil,"  the  "  litany  of  Satan,"  nor  any 
aspect  of  what  Starr  King  called  the  "  rotten  side  of 
things."  It  is  satisfied  with  the  life  and  duties  of  to- 
day, and  can  find  pleasure  in  these  rather  than  in  frantic 
attempts  to  seize  the  unknown  day  after  to-morrow.* 
The  sober  man  will  not  believe  that  "  that  which  is  pro- 
found loves  the  mask,"  nor  that  what  actually  "occurs 
is  spoiled  for  art."  To  him,  as  to  Marcus  Aurelius, 
"  the  gods  are  still  at  the  head  of  the  administration, 
and  they  will  have  nothing  but  the  best."  So  in  that 
part  of  the  universe  where  he  finds  himself  he  finds  also 
his  duty. 

"  The  normal  man,"  Nordau  wisely  says,  "  with  his 
clear  mind,  logical  thought,  sound  judgment,  and  strong 

will,    sees    where   the    degenerate    only 
The  normal  man.  .  , 

gropes.     He  plans  and  acts  where   the 

latter  dozes  and  dreams.  He  drives  him  without  effort 
from  all  the  places  where  the  life-springs  of  Nature 
bubble  up;  and,  in  possession  of  all  the  good  things 
of  the  earth,  he  leaves  to  the  impotent  degenerate  the 
shelter  of  the  hospital,  lunatic  asylum,  and  prison  in 
contemptuous  pity.  Let  us  imagine  the  drivelling  Zoro- 
aster of  Nietsche  with  his  cardboard  lions,  eagles,  and 

*  "  Erst  das  Uebermorgen  gehbrt  mir." — NIETSCHE. 


DEGENERATION. 


293 


serpents,  or  the  noctambulist  Des  Esseintes  of  the  De- 
cadents, sniffing  and  licking  his  lips,  or  Ibsen's  'solitary 
powerful '  Stockmann  and  his  Rosmer  lusting  for  suicide 
— in  competition  with  men  who  rise  early,  are  not  weary 
before  sunset,  who  have  clear  heads,  solid  stomachs,  and 
hard  muscles." 

But  in  this  connection  we  may  remember  that  com- 
petition is  not  destruction.  The  degenerates  have  been 
helped  on  by  their  rivals  more  than  they  have  been 
harmed.  They  have  been  borne  on  the  shoulders  of 
civilization,  and  it  is  the  altruism  of  science  which  has 
made  their  non-science  comparatively  safe.  It  is  the 
toleration  of  the  sane  that  gives  the  insane  the  right  to 
live.  It  is  the  power  of  the  strong  that  maintains  the 
weak.  In  the  long  run  the  struggle  for  existence  will 
destroy  the  lineage  of  the  decadents  of  to-day.  No 
shelter  can  long  avail  against  the  "goodness  and  sever- 
ity of  God."  But  the  folly  which  now  exists  is  in- 
trenched behind  wisdom.  The  kindness  of  man  post- 
pones the  judgments  of  Nature. 

It  is  not  true  that  "  genius  is  a  disease  of  the 
nerves,"  as  certain  writers  have  insisted,  if  by  genius 
is  meant  forcefulness  of  any  sort.  Real  effectiveness 
arises  from  continuous  effort  in  high  directions.  We 
are  sometimes  astounded  by  a  single  product  of  a  man 
incapable  of  continuous  thought,  but  the  world  is  not 
moved  by  such  men,  nor  has  the  literature  of  the  ages 
been  produced  by  them.  Great  men  live  great  lives. 
The  great  work  is  the  great  life's  impression.  There  is 
nothing  occult,  nothing  mystic,  nothing  hysterical  in 
greatness  of  mind  or  heart.  Disease  of  the  nerves  is 
not  genius;  still  less  is  it  an  attribute  of  greatness. 

Most  of  the  phenomena  of  decay  described  by  Nor- 
dau  stand  related  to  mental  disease  at  once  as  cause, 
effect,  and  symptom.  Drunkenness,  for  example,  is  the 


294 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


cause  of  more  drunkenness,  of  further  decay  of  will.  It 
is  the  symptom  of  the  decay  of  will.  It  is  the  effect  of 
it.  In  like  manner  the  love  of  mysticism  grows  with 
its  license ;  the  love  of  filth  with  what  it  feeds  upon. 
Egomania  increases  with  self-admiration,  sexual  mad- 
ness with  its  own  indulgences.  The  fantasies  of  those 
who  "  have  only  to  hear  of  Buddhism  to  become  converts 
to  it"  furnish  their  own  arguments  and  their  own  justifi- 
cation. Hysteria,  catalepsy,  and  echolalia  have  many 
times  taken  unto  themselves  the  name  of  religion,  and 
proved  the  truth  of  this  religion  by  their  own  excesses. 

Much  of  the  "  decadent  literature  "  of  the  day  is  not 
the  product  of  the  decadence  of  man.  It  is  not  the  ef- 
fect of  the  "  nerve  strain  of  overwrought 
Decadence  for  generations  born  too  late  in  the  dusk  of 
the  ages."  It  is  simply  an  unwholesome 
fashion.  Most  of  it  is  the  work  of  sane 
men  of  mediocre  abilities,  who  throw  themselves  into 
grotesque  postures  in  the  hope  that  they  may  thereby 
arrest  the  fickle  attention  of  the  public.  It  is  the  effort 
of  mountebanks  to  catch  the  people's  eye.  When  the 
public  becomes  accustomed  to  froth  and  symbolism,  it  is 
equally  surprised  and  delighted  with  sweetness  and 
sanity.  Neurotic  freaks  and  egomaniacs  have  been 
found  in  all  ages.  The  memory  of  those  of  earlier  ages 
has  passed  away,  as  those  of  to-day  will  be  soon  forgot- 
ten. The  end  of  the  nineteenth  century  has  no  new 
form  of  "  the  higher  foolishness  "  which  the  preceding 
centuries  did  not  know.  It  can  only  offer  better  facili- 
ties for  publicity  than  could  be  had  in  earlier  times. 
There  is  money  now  in  the  production  of  literature  of 
decay.  In  so  far  as  folly  and  nervous  disorder  are  in- 
nate and  hereditary,  not  individual,  we  have  no  reason 
to  suppose  that  they  are  in  any  sense  a  product  of  the 
rush  of  modern  civilization. 


DEGENERATION.  295 

Most  of  the  degeneration  so  cleverly  treated  by  Nor- 
dau  is  purely  the  result  of  defects  in  the  life  of  the  indi- 
vidual, in  his  relation  to  his  environment,  and  the  course 
of  action  by  which  his  character  is  formed.  Without 
going  into  a  detail  for  which  I  have  neither  space  nor 
ability,  I  may  say  that  the  development  of  mysticism, 
symbolism,  "  hearts  insurgent,"  and  general  mental  and 
moral  vagabondage  is  caused  by  the  lack  of  sober  liv- 
ing and  of  wholesome  work,  the  lack  of  motor  ideals 
and  of  outlet  for  effort. 

In  the  cities  of  Europe  the  common  man  has  risen 

to  a  life  of  larger  possibilities  and  greater  opportunities 

for  success  and  failure  without  adequate 

au  training   for   such  activity.     Society   is 

like  a  band  of  schoolboys  in  charge  of  a 

railway  train.     They  know  not  what  to  do  nor  how  to 

do  it,, and  are  more  interested  in  present  enjoyment  than 

in    the   success   of    any   enterprise    intrusted   to   them. 

Small-minded  men  lost  in  a  multiplicity  of  impressions 

are  likely  to  do  things  which  suggest  degeneration.     If 

to  this  we  add  the  wide  diffusion  of  corrosive  elements, 

narcotics,  stimulants,  impure  suggestion,  unwholesome 

living,  we  have  elements  which  tend   toward   personal 

degeneration.     As  their  influences  affect  many  persons 

alike,  they  appear  as  a  form  of  social  decadence. 

We  find,  moreover,  in  Europe,  the  prevalence  of  "  a 
strange  drooping  of  spirit."     This  feeling  that  civiliza- 
tion is  confined  in  a  blind   channel,  a 
Thedespondency    cul.d  is  a  natural  result  of  the  great 

of  Europe. 

increase  of  the  results  of  sense-percep- 
tion without  corresponding  outlet  in  action.  "  Prog- 
ress," says  Edward  Alsworth  Ross,  referring  to  this  con- 
dition, "  seems  to  have  ended  in  aimless  discontent.  The 
schools  have  produced,  according  to  Bismarck,  ten  times 
as  many  overeducated  young  men  as  there  are  places  to 


296 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


fill.  The  thirst  for  culture  has  produced  a  great  hungry 
intellectual  proletariat.  The  forces  of  darkness  are  still 
strong,  and  it  seems  sometimes  as  if  the  middle  ages 
would  swallow  up  everything  won  by  modern  struggles. 
It  is  true  that  many  alarms  have  proved  false,  but  it 
is  the  steady  strain  that  tells  on  the  mood.  It  is  pa- 
thetic to  see  on  the  Continent  how  men  fear  to  face  the 
future.  No  one  has  the  heart  to  probe  the  next  decade. 
The  outlook  is  bounded  by  the  next  Sunday  in  the  park 
or  the  theatre.  The  people  throw  themselves  into  the 
pleasures  of  the  moment  with  desperation  of  doomed 
men  who  hear  the  ring  of  the  hammer  on  the  scaffold. 
Ibsen,  applying  an  old  sailor's  superstition  to  the  Euro- 
pean ship  of  state,  tells  how  one  night  he  stood  on  the 
deck  and  looked  down  on  the  throng  of  passengers,  each 
the  victim  of  some  form  of  brooding  melancholy  or 
dark  presentiment.  As  he  looked  he  seemed  to  hear 
a  voice  crying,  '  There's  a  corpse  on  board  ! '  " 

The  record  of  degeneration  in  music,  in  art,  in  litera- 
ture, in  religion  as  traced  by  Nordau,  is  the  record  of 
loss  of  hope  and  loss  of  illusion.  In  so  far  as  it  is 
honest,  not  a  mere  affectation,  it  is  the  cry  called  out  by 
the  misery  of  personal  or  social  decay.  It  is  the  ex- 
pression of  mental  dyspepsia  and  physical  impotence. 
It  finds  a  large  part  of  its  explanation  in  the  fact  that, 
with  the  class  affected  by  it,  sense-impressions,  feelings, 
and  impulses  have  far  outrun  the  opportunities  for  ac- 
tion. The  cure  for  this  condition  is  found  in  ambition, 
effort,  individual  development.  It  is  not  the  swift  rush 
and  whirl  of  modern  civilization  which  has  brought  all 
this  to  pass.  It  has  come  rather  from  attaining  the 
results  of  this  rush*  without  taking  part  in  its  effort. 

*  A  similar  thought  is  expressed  by  Kant,  as  quoted  by  Mark 
Pattison.  Of  "Schwarmerei,"  or  philosophical  revery,  he  says: 
"This  mental  disease  arises  from  the  growth  of  a  class  which  has 


DEGENERATION. 


297 


The  genuine  man,  the  man  who  is  doing  something,  who 
faces  "  the  world  as  it  is,"  in  absolute  veracity  of  thought 
and  action,  is  never  decadent.  Society 
lives  through  the  effort  of  those  who 
have  power  to  act  beyond  what  is  needed 
in  the  common  struggle  for  life.  Strength  begets 
strength  and  wisdom  leads  to  wisdom.  "  There  is  al- 
ways room  for  the  man  of  force,  and  he  makes  room 
for  many."  It  is  the  strong,  wise,  and  good  of  the  past 

who  have  made  civilization  possible.  It 
The  ^wholesome  jg  thg  grea(.  human  men>  the  « men  ifl 

the  natural  order,"  that  now  and  for 
all  time  determine  the  current  of  life.  "  The  earth," 
Emerson  tells  us,  "  is  upheld  by  the  veracity  of  good 
men.  They  keep  the  world  wholesome." 

From  all  institutions  a  certain  form  of  degeneration 
must  arise,  because  all  institutions  tend  in  some  degree 

to  do  away  with  individual  effort.  A 
Degeneration  common  creed  for  men  weakens  the 

force  of  individual  belief.  Common 
institutions. 

ceremonies  destroy  the  spontaneity  and 

personality  of  the  feelings  they  represent.  Right  action 
by  statute  and  convention  is  in  some  degree  opposed 
to  virtue  by  personal  initiative.  Between  unregulated 
individualism  or  anarchy  and  all-controlling  institutions 

not  yet  thorough  science,  yet  is  not  wholly  ignorant.  It  has 
caught  up  notions  on  current  literature  which  makes  it  think  it- 
self on  the  same  level  of  those  who  have  laboriously  studied  the 
sciences.  I  see  no  other  means  of  checking  the  mischief,  except 
that  the  schools  should  reform  their  method  and  restore  thorough 
teaching  instead  of  that  teaching  of  many  things  which  has 
usurped  its  place."  Thoreau  speaks  of  the  derivation  of  "vile" 
and  "  villain  "  from  via,  way,  and  villa,  village.  "  This  suggests," 
he  says,  "that  kind  of  degeneracy  villagers  are  liable  to.  They 
are  -wayworn  by  the  travel  that  goes  by  and  over  them  without  travel- 
ling themselves." 


298  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

or  slavery  there  must  always  be  a  just  mean.  To  find 
and  maintain  this  just  mean  from  generation  to  genera- 
tion is  the  function  of  social  reform.  The  reform  of  the 
day  has  been  always  in  the  direction  of  greater  personal 
freedom.  "  As  a  snow  bank  grows  where  there  is  a  lull 
in  the  wind,"  says  Thoreau,  "  so  where  there  is  a  lull 
in  the  truth,  institutions  spring  up ;  by  and  by  the  truth 
blows  over  them  and  takes  them  away."  All  forms  of 
tyranny  have  their  beginning  in  kindness.  Paternalism 
in  time  hardens  into  oppression  and  checks  the  growth 
of  the  individual  man,  who  should  become  responsible 
to  himself  and  for  himself.  The  intelligence  and  free- 
dom of  one's  neighbours,  not  the  force  of  statute  nor  the 
power  of  arms,  are  the  guarantee  of  social  security. 

Causes  of  pauperism  may  be  found  in  other  forms  of 
giving  as  well  as  in  those  recognised  as  charity.  Men- 
tal pauperism  is  produced  when  men  are  given  truth 
instead  of  being  trained  to  search  for  it.  There  are 
schools  which  tend  to  make  intellectual  paupers  instead 
of  training  men  to  think  for  themselves.  There  is  a 
moral  pauperism  induced  by  the  giving  of  precepts. 
Right  conduct  must  be  individual  if  it  is  to  have  stabil- 
ity. The  doing  of  an  honest  piece  of  work  honestly 
may  have  more  force  in  moral  training  than  a  hundred 
sermons.  In  like  manner  spiritual  pauperism  may  be 
produced  by  religious  instruction.  Each  man  must  make 
his  own  religion.  He  must  form  his  own  ideals.  In  the 
degree  that  he  is  religious  he  must  in  time  become  his 
own  high  priest,  as  in  the  degree  that  he  is  effective  he 
must  be  his  own  king. 


XII. 
HEREDITARY   INEFFICIENCY. 

THIS  world  is  not,  on  the  whole,  a  hard  world  to  live 
in  if  one  have  the  knack  of  making  the  proper  conces- 
sions.     Hosts   of   animals,   plants,  and 
The  art  of  living.  ,  ,    ,  .     .          ,  ,    , 

men  have  acquired  this  knack,  and  they 

and  their  descendants  are  able  to  hold  their  own  in  the 
pressure  of  the  struggle  for  existence.  This  pressure 
brings  about  the  persistence  of  the  obedient,  those  whose 
activities  accord  with  the  demands  of  their  environment. 
This  persistence  of  the  adaptive  is  known  as  the  survival 
of  the  fittest,  which  has  through  the  ages  been  the  chief 
element  of  organic  progress.  Among  men  there  have 
always  been  those  to  whom  the  art  of  living  was  im- 
possible. This  has  been  the  case  under  ordinary  con- 
ditions as  well  as  under  extraordinary  ones.  It  must  be 
the  case  with  some  under  any  conceivable  environment 
or  any  circumstances  of  life.  Some  variations  must 
tend  in  the  direction  of  incapacity.  This  incapacity  of 
one  generation,  if  inborn  and  not  induced  by  disease  or 
malnutrition,  may  be  handed  down  by  the  law  of  heredity 
to  the  next. 

In  one  way  or  another,  in  time,  most  of  the  incapa- 
bles  are  eliminated  by  the  process  of  natural  selection. 
But  not  all  of  them.  Our  social  system  is  bound  too 
closely.  Hereditary  incapacity  of  the  few  has  been  in 
all  ages  a  burden  on  the  many  who  could  take  care  of 

299 


300 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


themselves.     With  higher  civilization  and  an  increasing 
recognition  of  the  value  of  mutual  help  it  is  becoming 

more  and  more  possible  for  those  to  live 
Mutual  help  who    do    noj.    hejp>      The  descendants  of 


preserves  the 
incapable. 


these  increase  in  number  with  the  others. 


They  are  protected  by  the  others.  Thus 
the  future  of  hereditary  weakness  is  a  growing  problem 
in  our  social  organization. 

Of  course  the  conditions  of  life  have  never  yet  made 
the  "  survival  of  the  fittest "  the  real  survival  of  the 

best.  The  growth  of  civilization  ap- 
The  easy  world.  .  .  .  ,  ,  , 

preaches  this  end,  but  has  never  reached 

it.  If  this  were  reached,  adaptation  to  the  conditions 
of  life  would  be  a  nobler  process  than  it  now  is.  It  is 
not  that  the  conditions  of  life  are  too  hard.  We  would 
not  make  them  easier  if  we  could.  But  the  welfare  of 
humanity  demands  that  they  be  made  more  just.  An 
easier  world  would  be  one  in  which  idleness,  vice,  and 
inefficiency  fare  better  than  now,  and  energy,  virtue, 
and  efficiency  correspondingly  worse.  The  premium 
natural  selection  places  on  self-activity  and  mutual  help 
is  none  too  great  at  the  best  and  should  not  be  lessened. 
Nature  is  over-indulgent  toward  idleness  rather  than  too 
cruel.  The  degradation  of  life  in  the  tropics  comes  be- 
cause in  those  regions  the  stress  of  the  human  struggles 
is  distinctly  lowered.  The  real  "  City  of  the  Dreadful 
Night "  is  not  noisy,  eager,  struggling,  unjust  London. 
It  is  some  city  of  the  tropics  where  action  and  virtue 
count  for  nothing  because  there  is  no  incentive  to  live  a 
life  worth  living,  and  no  adequate  penalty  for  stagnation 
and  inefficiency. 

It  is  easy  to  frame  indictments  against  modern  so- 
ciety and  its  organization.  We  may  see  it  as  weak, 
tyrannical,  depressing,  artificial,  cruel,  or  unjust,  as  we 
may  give  attention  to  its  least  favourable  manifestations. 


HEREDITARY   INEFFICIENCY. 


301 


Nevertheless,  the  social  organism  of  Europe  and  America 
is  as  good  as  man  has  been  able  to  make  it.  In  the 
evolution  of  man  it  has  been  a  long  struggle  to  attain 
even  what  we  have.  Better  conditions  will  be  possible 
through  better  material  in  humanity.  Better  relations 
demand  better  men.  The  more  perfect  the  organism, 
the  more  evident  are  its  deviations  from  perfect  adap- 
tation. 

It  may  be  that  in  the  conditions  of  life  failure  is  not 
due  to  any  defect  of  the  individual.  Its  cause  has  often 
arisen  in  injustice  and  oppression  which  sometimes 
makes  the  just,  the  brave,  the  wise  man  an  outcast  from 
society.  Such  conditions  and  such  failures  occur  in  the 
life  of  to-day.  But  under  ordinary  conditions  those 
who  fail  in  life  do  so  because  of  the  lack  of  ability  to 
make  themselves  useful  to  others,  or  for  lack  of  ability 
to  place  themselves  in  harmony  with  the  forces  of  Na- 
ture with  which  they  are  surrounded.  In  other  words, 
most  of  those  who  fail  are  doomed  to  perish  wherever 
there  exists  any  form  of  competition,  and  no  life  is 
without  it.  The  inert,  untrained,  ignorant,  or  vicious 
are  constitutionally  unsuccessful,  and  from  conditions 
which  these  names  themselves  imply.  Those  who  thus 
fail  to  do  their  part  in  the  struggle  of  life  must  become 
a  burden  to  be  carried  by  others  or  else  they  perish,  the 
victims  of  misery  they  can  make  no  efforts  to  avoid. 
Those  who  are  carried  by  society  as  burdens  may  be 
roughly  classified  as  paupers  and  criminals — those  whom 
society  voluntarily  supports  and  those  supported  through 
society's  lack  of  means  of  .self-protection.  Pauperism 
and  habitual  criminality  are  respectively  passive  and  ac- 
tive states  of  the  same  disease. 

In  this  sense  pauperism  is  not  by  any.  means  the 
same  as  poverty.  Poverty  is  the  absence  of  stored-up 
economic  force.  It  may  arise  from  sickness,  accident, 


302 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


or  from  various  temporary  conditions.     The  person  now 
subject  to  poverty  may  have  within  him- 

Self  the  CUre  f°r  il>     The  PauPer  can  not 
cure  himself,  and  all  help  given  him  but 

intensifies  his  pauperism. 

There  are  various  conditions — sickness,  dissipation, 
the  weakness  of  age,  evil  associations — that  may  plunge 
the  average  man  from  poverty  into  pauperism.  We  are 
none  too  well  equipped  for  the  struggle  for  life  at  the 
best,  and  the  loss  of  weapons  or  armour  may  make  any 
man  helpless  for  the  time  being.  But  some  are  help- 
less from  birth.  There  is  in  every  nation  a  multitude 
of  men  and  women  to  whom  fitness  is  impossible.  In 
the  submerged  tenth  of  every  land  may  be  found  the 
broken  and  stricken,  the  ruined  in  body  and  spirit.  But 
the  majority  of  these  have  never  been,  could  never  be, 
anything  else  than  what  they  are.  They  are  simply  in- 
capable, and  they  are  the  descendants  of  others  who  in 
similar  conditions  have  been  likewise  incapable.  In  a 
world  of  work  where  clear  vision  and  a  clear  conscience 
are  necessary  to  life  they  find  themselves  without  sense 
of  justice,  without  capacity  of  mind,  without  desire  for 
action.  They  are  born  to  misery,  and  the  aggregate 
of  misery  would  be  sensibly  lessened  had  they  never 
been  born. 

It  is  a  fact  of  biology  that  whenever  any  series  of 
organisms  are  withdrawn  from  active  life  and  the  pro- 
cess of  natural  selection  no  longer  offers 
Degeneration          &    premium    for    self-activity,    degrada- 
of  the  inactive.          .  /' 

tion  sets  in.     Organs  are  lost  as  their 

functions  are  abandoned.  In  this  way  the  descent  of 
the  inert  barnacle  from  the  active  crablike  forms  is  ac- 
counted for.  In  similar  manner  the  degraded  parasitic 
Sacculina  is  shown  to  be  of  crustacean  or  crablike  or- 
igin. The  young  Sacculina  and  the  young  crab  are 


HEREDITARY    INEFFICIENCY. 


303 


essentially  alike  for  a  period  after  their  birth.  The  crab 
continues  and  develops  an  active  life.  The  Sacculina 
thrusts  its  feelers  into  the  body  of  the  crab  on  which  it 
is  to  feed.  Its  organs  of  eating  and  swimming  disap- 
pear. All  structures  connected  with  independent  life 
become  atrophied,  and  finally  nothing  is  left  of  the  Sac- 
culina except  its  saclike  body,  its  feelers  or  roots  rami- 
fying through  the  blood  vessels  of  the  crab,  and  its 
reproductive  organs  by  which  the  brood  of  parasites  is 
kept  alive.  When  the  habit  of  parasitism  is  once  estab- 
lished, the  struggle  for  existence  simply  intensifies  it 
from  generation  to  generation. 

The  fittest  Sacculina  is  the  most  degenerate  one.  In 
like  manner  whenever  a  race  or  family  of  men  has  fallen 
away  from  self-helpfulness  the  forces  of  evolution  inten- 
sify its  parasitism.  The  successful  pauper  is  the  one 
who  retains  no  capacity  for  anything  else.  The  loss  of 
all  other  possibilities  is  the  best  preparation  for  the  life 
of  the  sneak  thief. 

Recent  studies,  as  those  of  Dugdale,  McCulloch,  and 
others,  have  shown  that  parasitism  is  hereditary  in  the 
human  species  as  in  the  Sacculina.  McCulloch  has 
selected  the  Sacculina  for  special  illustration  of  the 
results  of  like  processes  in  the  human  family.  Like 
produces  like  in  the  world  of  life.  Those  qualities  in 
the  grandparent  which  made  him  an  outcast  from  so- 
ciety or  a  burden  upon  it  reappear  in  the  father  and 
again  in  the  son.  As  in  one  case,  so  in  the  others,  they 
determine  his  relation  to  society.  The  pauper  is  the 
victim  of  heredity,  but  neither  Nature  nor  society  recog- 
nises that  as  an  excuse  for  his  existence.  The  forces  of 
Nature  take  no  account  of  motive  and  are  no  respecters 
of  persons.  Dugdale  has  shown  that  parasitism,  pauper- 
ism, prostitution,  and  crime  reappear  generation  after 
generation  in  the  descendants  of  "Margaret,  the  mother 


304 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


of  criminals."  Oscar  C.  McCulloch,  speaking  of  the  de- 
scendants of  a  pauper  family  named  "  Ishmael,"  in  the 
city  of  Indianapolis,  uses  the  following  language : 

"We  start  at  some  unknown  date  with  thirty  fami- 
lies.    These   came   mostly  from  Kentucky,  Tennessee, 

and  North  Carolina.     Of  the  first  gen- 
The  tribe  of  eration — of     sixty-two    individuals — we 

Ishmael.  .    .       J 

know  certainly  of   only  three.     In   the 

second  generation  we  have  the  history  of  eighty-four. 
In  the  third  generation  we  have  the  history  of  two  hun- 
dred and  eighty-three.  In  the  fourth  generation — 1840— 
1860 — we  have  the  history  of  six  hundred  and  forty- 
four.  In  the  fifth  generation — 1860-1880 — we  have  the 
history  of  six  hundred  and  seventy-nine.  In  the  sixth 
generation — 1880-1890 — we  have  the  history  of  fifty- 
seven.  Here  is  a  total  of  seventeen  hundred  and  fifty 
individuals.  Before  the  fourth  generation — from  1840 
to  1860 — we  have  but  scant  records.  Our  most  com- 
plete data  begin  with  the  fourth  generation,  and  the 
following  are  valuable.  We  know  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty-one  prostitutes.  The  criminal  record  is  very 
large — petty  thieving,  larcenies  chiefly.  There  have 
been  a  number  of  murders.  The  first  murder  committed 
in  the  city  was  in  this  family.  A  long  and  celebrated 
murder  case,  known  as  the  'Clem'  murder,  costing  the 
State  immense  amounts  of  money,  is  located  here. 
Nearly  every  crime  of  any  note  belongs  here.  Between 
1868  and  1888  not  less  than  five  thousand  dollars  has 
been  paid  for  '  passing '  these  people  from  place  to  place, 
each  township  officer  trying  to  throw  off  the  responsi- 
bility. The  records  of  the  city  hospital  show  that — 
taking  out  surgical  cases,  acute  general  cases,  and  cases 
outside  the  city — seventy-five  per  cent  of  the  cases 
treated  are  from  this  class.  The  number  of  illegitima- 
cies is  very  great.  The  Board  of  Health  reports  that  the 


HEREDITARY   INEFFICIENCY. 


305 


number  of  stillborn  children  found  in  sinks,  etc.,  would 
not  be  less  than  six  per  week.  Deaths  are  frequent,  and 
chiefly  among  children.  The  suffering  of  the  children 
must  be  great.  The  people  have  no  occupation.  They 
gather  swill  or  ashes;  the  women  beg,  and  send  the 
children  around  to  beg  ;  they  make  their  eyes  sore  with 
vitriol.  In  my  own  experience  I  have  seen  three  gen- 
erations of  beggars  among  them.  I  have  not  time  here 
to  go  into  details,  some  loathsome,  all  pitiable.  One 
evening  I  was  called  to  marry  a  couple.  I  found  them 
in  one  small  room  with  two  beds.  In  all  eleven  people 
lived  in  it.  The  bride  was  dressing,  the  groom  washing. 
Another  member  of  the  family  filled  a  coal-oil  lamp 
while  burning.  The  groom  offered  to  haul  ashes  for  the 
fee.  I  made  a  present  to  the  bride.  Soon  after  I  asked 
one  of  the  family  how  they  were  getting  on.  '  Oh, 
Elisha  don't  live  with  her  any  more.'  'Why?'  'Her 
husband  came  back,  and  she  went  to  him.  That  made 
Elisha  mad,  and  he  left  her.' 

"  All  these  are  grim  facts,  but  they  are  facts  and  can 
be  verified.  More,  they  are  but  thirty  families  out  of  a 
possible  two  hundred  and  fifty.  The  individuals  already 
traced  are  over  five  thousand,  interwoven  by  descent 
and  marriage.  They  underrun  society  like  devil  grass. 
Pick  up  one,  and  the  whole  five  thousand  will  be  drawn 
up.  Over  seven  thousand  pages  of  history  are  now  on 
file  in  the  Charity  Organization  Society. 

"  A  few  deductions  from  these  data  are  offered  for 
your  consideration.  First,  this  is  a  study  into  social 
degeneration,  or  degradation,  which  is  similar  to  that 
sketched  by  Mr.  Lankester.  As  in  the  lower  orders  so 
in  society,  we  have  parasitism,  or  social  degradation. 
There  is  reason  to  believe  that  some  of  this  comes  from 
old  convict  stock  which  England  threw  into  this  coun- 
try in  the  seventeenth  century.  We  find  the  wandering 


306  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

tendency  so  marked  in  the  case  of  '  Cracker '  and  the 
'  Pike  '  here.  '  Movin'  on.'  There  is  scarcely  a  day  that 
the  wagons  are  not  to  be  seen  in  our  streets;  cur  dogs; 
tow-headed  children.  They  camp  outside  the  city,  and 
then  beg.  Two  families  as  I  write  have  come  by,  mov- 
ing from  north  to  south,  and  from  east  to  west,  'hunt- 
ing work,"  and  yet  we  can  give  work  to  a  thousand  men 
on  our  gas  trenches. 

"  Next,  note  the  general  unchastity  that  character- 
izes this  class.  The  prostitution  and  illegitimacy  are 
large;  the  tendency  shows  itself  in  incests  and  relations 
lower  than  the  animals  go.  This  is  due  to  the  depra- 
vation of  Nature,  to  crowded  conditions,  to  absence  of 
decencies  and  cleanliness.  It  is  an  animal  reversion 
which  can  be  paralleled  in  lower  animals.  The  physical 
depravity  is  followed  by  physical  weakness.  Out  of  this 
come  the  frequent  deaths,  the  stillborn  children,  and 
the  general  incapacity  to  endure  hard  work  or  bad  cli- 
mate. They  can  not  work  hard,  and  break  down  early. 
They  then  appear  in  the  county  asylum,  the  city  hospi- 
tal, and  the  township  trustee's  office. 

"  Third,  note  the  force  of  heredity.  EachTchild  tends 
to  the  same  life,  reverts  when  taken  out. 

"  And,  lastly,  note  the  influence  of  the  great  factor, 
public  relief.  Since  1840  relief  has  been  given  to  them. 
At  that  time  we  find  that  'old  E.  Huggins '  applied  to 
have  his  wife  Barthemia  sent  to  the  poorhouse.  A  pre- 
mium was  then  paid  for  idleness  and  wandering.  The 
amount  paid  by  the  township  for  public  relief  varies, 
rising  as  high  as  $90,000  in  1876,  sinking  in  1878  to 
$7,000,  and  ranging  with  the  different  trustees  from 
$7,000  to  $22,000  per  year.  Of  this  amount,  fully  three 
fourths  has  gone  to  this  class.  Public  relief,  then,  is 
chargeable  in  a  large  degree  with  the  perpetuation  of 
this  stock.  The  township  trustee  is  practically  unlim- 


HEREDITARY    INEFFICIENCY. 


307 


ited  in  his  powers.  He  can  give  as  much  as  he  sees  fit. 
As  the  office  is  a  political  one,  about  the  time  of  nomi- 
nation and  election  the  amounts  increase  largely.  The 
political  bosses  favour  this  and  use  it — now  in  the  inter- 
ests of  the  Republican  now  of  the  Democratic  party.  It 
thus  becomes  a  corruption  fund  of  the  worst  kind. 
What  the  township  trustee  fails  to  do,  private  benevo- 
lence supplements.  The  so-called  charitable  people  who 
give  to  begging  children  and  women  with  baskets  have 
a  vast  sin  to  answer  for.  It  is  from  them  that  this  pau- 
per element  gets  its  consent  to  exist." 

In   every  American  city,  as  in   Indianapolis,   there 

exist  a  large  number  of   people  who,  in  the  ordinary 

course  of  life,  can  never  be  made  good 

Paupers  as  citizens.     Our  free  institutions  do  not 

parasites. 

make  them  free ;  our  free  schools  do  not 

train  them ;  our  churches  do  not  contain  the  means  of 
their  salvation.  It  is  well  to  face  the  fact  that  the  ex- 
istence of  the  great  body  of  paupers  and  criminals  is 
possible  only  by  feeding  them  in  one  way  or  another 
on  the  life-blood  of  the  community.  It  is  the  presence 
of  this  class  which  adds  terror  to  poverty.  It  is  they 
which  make  intolerable  the  lot  of  the  worthy  poor.  The 
problem  of  poverty  and  misfortune  is  a  difficult  one  at 
best.  It  is  rendered  many  times  more  difficult  by  the 
presence  among  the  poor  of  those  whom  no  condition 
could  bring  to  the  level  of  self-helpful  and  self-respect- 
ing humanity.  The  difficult  problem  of  the  unemployed 
becomes  far  more  difficult  when  associated  with  the 
hopeless  problem  of  the  unemployable. 

It  is  not  important  to  our  present  discussion  to  con- 
sider how  these  conditions  arose.  It  may  be  a  defect 
of  human  society  that  the  law  of  natural  selection  has 
not  had  its  perfect  work.  The  destruction  of  the  unfit 
has  not  kept  pace  with  their  power  of  reproduction. 


308  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

We  may  blame  the  kind  influence  of  charity  for  lack 
of  discrimination  in  its  efforts  for  the  help  of  our  neigh- 
bours. The  indiscriminate  charity  of  the  middle  ages 
is  responsible  for  much  of  the  misery  of  ours.  It  is 
only  in  very  modern  times  that  charity  has  had  any 
relation  with  justice.  It  is  only  lately  that  science  has 
shown  that  charity  is  to  be  judged  not  by  its  motives 
but  by  its  results.  "  Charity,  falsely  so  called,"  says 
McCulloch,  "covers  a  multitude  of  sins,  and  sends  the 
pauper  out  with  the  benediction,  '  Be  fruitful  and  multi- 
ply.' Such  charity  has  made  this  element,  has  brought 
children  to  birth,  and  insured  them  a  life  of  misery,  cold, 
hunger,  sickness.  So-called  charity  joins  public  relief 
in  producing  stillborn  children,  raising  prostitutes,  and 
educating  criminals." 

Whatever  the  causes  of  hereditary  inefficiency,  it  exists 
in  our  civilization.     It  is  part  of  our  social  fabric.     It  is 
an  element  not  less  difficult  than  the  race  problem  itself. 
The  race  problem  is  indeed  a  phase  of  it,  for  when  a 
race  can  take  care  of  itself  it  ceases  to  have  a  problem. 
Hereditary  inefficiency  is  therefore  a  factor  in  so- 
ciety.    It  must  be  considered  as  a  factor  in  civil  affairs. 
In  what  way  does  it  affect  the  problem 
n  a         of  government  ?     In  municipal  govern- 

government.  ment  its  evil  effects  are  at  °nce  appar- 
ent. A  single  group  of  related  families, 
all  helpless  and  hopeless  by  heredity,  forms  in  the  clean 
and  wealthy  city  of  Indianapolis  some  four  per  cent  of 
the  population — 5,000  in  perhaps  125,000.  In  other 
American  cities,  notably  in  San  Francisco,  with  its  mild 
climate  and  proverbial  hospitality,  the  percentage  is 
greater,  for  more  of  these  families  are  represented.  In 
no  city  are  they  absent.  Self-government  by  such  peo- 
ple is  a  farce.  No  community  was  ever  built  up  of 
thieves  and  imbeciles.  The  vote  of  the  dependent  classes 


HEREDITARY   INEFFICIENCY. 


309 


is  always  purchasable.  The  co-ordination  and  sale  of 
this  vote  and  of  the  allied  criminal  vote  are  the  work  of 
the  most  dangerous  of  the  dirty  brood  of  political  bosses. 
It  is  the  stock  in  trade  of  every  king  of  the  slums.  This 
vote  can  be  bought  with  the  money  of  candidates.  It 
can  be  bought  with  the  spoils  of  office.  It  can  be  bought 
with  public  funds  set  aside  for  purposes  called  charity. 

The  various  forms  of  outdoor  relief  constitute,  as 

McCulloch  has  shown,  "  a  corruption  fund  of  the  worst 

kind."     The  United  States  has  virtually 

Corruption  failed  jn  the  management   of   her  cities> 

fund  of  public         ™,  .     .....  .  ,  , 

1  his  failure  is  most  complete  where  the 

manipulators  of  paupers  and  criminals 
are  boldest  and  most  effective;  moreover,  the  effluvium 
of  municipal  corruption  flows  out  and  poisons  the  poli- 
tics of  the  state  and  the  nation. 

Every  venal,  cowardly,  or  ignorant  voter  is  a  menace 
to  the  safety  of  republican  institutions.  The  essential 
purpose  of  popular  suffrage  is  not  to  secure  good  gov- 
ernment, but  to  produce  an  interest  in  civil  affairs  that 
will  sooner  or  later  bring  about  good  government.  This 
growth  in  civic  knowledge  is  impossible  without  a  foun- 
dation of  intelligence.  The  choice  of  negro  suffrage 
was  the  wisest  choice  among  the  many  evils  having 
their  rise  in  negro  slavery.  It  was  the  least  of  the 
evils,  no  doubt,  but  an  evil  nevertheless.  Every  evil 
is  likely  sooner  or  later  to  become  a  festering  sore  in 
the  body  politic. 

The  dangers  of  foreign  immigration  lie  in  the  over- 
flow to  our  shores  of  hereditary  unfitness.  The  causes 
that  lead  to  degeneration  have  long 

been  at  work  among  the  poor  of  Europe, 
immigration. 

The   slums    of    every   city   in   the   Old 

World  are  full  of  the  results.  Apparently  few  cases  of 
hereditary  inefficiency  exist  in  America  that  could  not 


310  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

be  traced  back  through  pauper  lineage  to  dependent 
classes  in  the  Old  World.  It  takes  many  generations  to 
found  a  pauper  stock.  Misfortune,  sickness,  intemper- 
ance, the  weakness  of  old  age,  often  lead  to  poverty 
and  personal  misery.  Personal  causes  do  not  lead  to 
hereditary  pauperism.  The  essential  danger  of  unre- 
stricted immigration  is  not  in  bringing  in  an  alien  popu- 
lation strange  to  our  language  and  customs.  Language 
and  customs  count  for  little  if  the  blood  is  good.  The 
children  learn  our  language,  even  to  the  forgetting  of 
their  own.  Love  of  our  country  is  just  as  genuine  in 
Norwegian  or  German  dialects  as  it  is  in  English  or 
Irish.  There  is  little  danger  either  in  violent  opinions 
or  iconoclastic  theories.  The  red  flag  of  anarchy  will 
not  long  wave  where  real  oppression  does  not  exist. 

But  the  immigration  of  poverty,  degradation,  and 
disease  make  government  by  the  people  more  and  more 
difficult.  Every  family  of  "Jukes"  and  "  Ishmaels  " 
which  enter  at  Castle  Garden  carries  with  it  the  germs 
of  pauperism  and  crime.  They  bear  the  leprosy  and 
crime  of  the  Old  World  to  taint  the  fields  of  the  New. 
The  "  assisted  immigration  "  at  Jamestown  years  ago 
has  left  its  trail  of  pauperism  and  crime  from  Virginia 
across  Carolina,  Kentucky,  Indiana,  Missouri,  even  to 
California,  Oregon,  and  Hawaii.  Wherever  its  blight  has 
gone  there  are  the  same  inefficient  men,  sickly  women, 
frowsy  children,  starved  horses,  barking  cur  dogs,  care- 
lessness, vindictiveness,  and  neglect  of  decency. 

Withdrawal  from  the  competition  of  life,  withdrawal 
from  self-helpful  activity,  aided  by  the  voluntary  or  in- 
voluntary assistance  from  others — these  factors  have 
made  that  which  McCulloch  calls  "  the  tribe  of  Ish- 
mael."  These  conditions  bring  about  the  same  results 
in  all  ages  and  among  all  races,  among  the  lower  ani- 
mals as  well  as  among  men.  The  same  effects  of  simi- 


HEREDITARY   INEFFICIENCY.  311 

lar  causes  are  seen  in  the  decline  of  royalty  and  nobility 
of  Europe  as  well  as  the  degradation  of  European 
cretins  and  thieves.  There  is  no  development  without 
activity,  and  no  race  is  so  perfect  that  judicious  weed- 
ing out  could  not  improve  it. 

What  can  be  done  to  remedy  this  source  of  evil  ? 
To  know  the  evil  is  to  go  half  way  toward  its  cure. 
Penal  reform,  charities  reform,  civil-service  reform,  the 
prohibition  of  pauper  immigration,  education  in  social 
science — all  these  look  in  the  direction  of  cure.  In 
knowledge  lies  the  surest  remedy  for  most  social  and 
political  evils.  Let  us  see  our  enemy 
Taking  away  face  to  face  and  we  can  strike  him< 

th,?-'ufn^d0m  What  more  can  be  done  is  the  work  of 
which  is 

thraldom  to  sin  "  students  of  social  science  to  determine. 
Dr.  Amos  G.  Warner  has  well  said  that 
the  "true  function  of  charity  is  to  restore  to  usefulness 
those  who  are  temporarily  unfit,  and  to  allow  those  un- 
fit from  heredity  to  become  extinct  with  as  little  pain 
as  possible."  Sooner  or  later  the  last  duty  will  not  be 
less  important  and  pressing  than  the  first.  Good  blood 
as  well  as  free  schools  and  free  environment  is  essential 
to  the  making  of  a  nation. 


XIII. 

THE    WOMAN    OF   EVOLUTION    AND    THE    WOMAN 
OF   PESSIMISM. 

THE  primary  function  of  sex  is  the  production  of 

variation.    Unlikeness  among  organisms  makes  possible 

an   increased  number.     With  variety  of 

qualities  there    is  room  for  variety  in 

meaning  of  sex.  .  ,.  .  , 

adaptation  to  the  possible  conditions  of 

life.  With  single  parentage  or  parthenogenesis  the 
young  will  resemble  the  parent  so  exactly  that  the  com- 
petition one  with  another  must  be  of  the  closest  possible 
kind.  In  the  degree  that  competition  is  close  it  must  be 
destructive.  With  double  parentage  no  organism  can 
be  a  slavish  copy  of  any  other.  Each  creation  must  in 
the  nature  of  things  have  twice  as  many  ancestors  as 
either  parent  had,  and  from  these  ancestors  the  mosaic 
of  its  hereditary  character  must  be  made  up. 

In  the  beginning  of  life,  so  far  as  we  know,  the  two 
sexes  must  have  been  identical.  From  the  point  of  view 
of  evolution  neither  can  be  superior  nor  prior  to  the 
other.  Each  is  complementary  to  the  other ;  the  dif- 
ferences which  have  arisen  in  the  progress  of  develop- 
ment being  responses  to  the  needs  of 

Primal  equality      division  Qf  ,abour 

of  sexes.  ,  ..... 

The  cells  of  Protozoa  which  unite  in 

the  function  of  conjugation  are  apparently  alike  as  to 
sex.  Their  union  serves  to  modify  the  hereditary  char- 


THE   WOMAN   OF   EVOLUTION   AND   PESSIMISM. 


313 


acters  of  their  descendants.     To  have  two  parents  in- 
stead of  one  is  to  widen  the  range  of  possible  variation. 
With  time  this  identity  of  the  two  elements  in  pa- 
rentage disappears.     It  gives  way  to  specialization,  re- 
sulting in  a  division  of  function  between 
Specialization         tfae    twQ    sexeg    and    tfae    distinction    of 
of  germ  cells. 

germ  cells  from  other  cells.     The  germ 

cell  in  the  higher  creatures  gains  characters  and  quali- 
ties of  its  own  not  possessed  by  the  other  cells  of  the 
body.  As  the  character  of  double  parentage  is  retained 
in  the  development  of  the  higher  animals  and  plants,  it 
too  is  specialized  and  perfected.  "  Nature,"  says  Weis- 
mann,  "  has  no  better  way  of  encouraging  variation  than 
by  preventing  individual  units  from  developing  alone." 

In  the  germ  cell  of  the  female,  known  as  the  egg  or 
ovum,  food  yolk  is  deposited  for  the  use  of  the  young 
organism.  This  burden  reduces  the  activity  of  the  fe- 
male cell.  It  becomes  sessile  and  motionless.  Its  cog- 
nate, the  male  germ,  on  the  other  hand,  is  specialized 
to  seek  the  egg  cell.  It  is  made  up  of  an  almost  bare 
nucleus  to  which  is  attached  a  vibratile  structure  which 
gives  it  the  power  to  move. 

This  differentiation  of  sex  in  the  germ  cell  produces 
changes  and  reactions  in  the  organism  from  which  it 
proceeds.  The  egg-bearing  sex  becomes  in  comparison 
with  the  other  sessile,  expectant,  conservative.  The 
feeding  of  the  young  and  its  protection  from  external 
enemies  falls  to  the  lot  of  the  female.  The  male  be- 
comes in  varying  degree  the  food  winner,  the  fighter, 
the  one  which  struggles  against  outside  foes.  Greater 
physical  strength  is  co-ordinated  with  the  need  for 
greater  activity.  Increased  force  demands  increase  of 
size  of  body.  Increased  muscular  development  necessi- 
tates increase  in  size  of  the  sensorium  or  brain  which 
controls  it. 


314  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

The  process  of  evolution  makes  the  embryo  more  and 
more  important;  specialization  checks  waste.  Among  the 
higher  forms  the  loss  of  ova  and  of  embryos  becomes  less 
and  less;  correspondingly  fewer  in  number  are  needed. 

To  bring  forth  the  young  alive  and  to  nourish  it  with 

milk  is  greatly  to  reduce  the  waste  of  life.     It  renders  a 

birth  important.     The  fox,  in  the  fable, 

Specialization  of     Qnce    reproached    the    Honess    that    she 

the  embryo. 

brought  forth  but   one  young  one  at  a 

time.  "  Yes,"  she  said,  "  but  that  one  is  a  lion."  To  bear 
the  young  and  to  nourish  it  separates  the  lioness  further 
and  further  in  function  from  the  lion.  This  handicap  of 
her  general  activities  in  the  interest  of  the  coming  gen- 
eration throws  greater  stress  on  his.  Should  she  neg- 
lect her  duty,  her  line  of  descent  would  be  cut  off. 
Hence  the  coming  generations  are  derived  from  those 
who  do  not  shrink  from  the  self-sacrifice  which  parent- 
hood demands.  What  is  true  of  the  lower  animals  is 
true  of  man  in  still  higher  degree.  It  is  the  basis  of  the 
recognised  distinctions  in  the  activities  of  men  and 
women.  That  every  child  born  should  make  the  most 
of  itself  is  the  ideal  of  social  development.  As  society 
advances,  father  and  mother  must  furnish  more  and 
more  of  the  environment  of  the  child.  The  merely 
physical  part  of  parenthood  assumes  an  importance  pro- 
gressively less  and  less.  The  higher  heredity  which 
each  individual  builds  up  for  himself  should  be  well  un- 
der way  when  parental  influences  cease.  The  aggregate 
of  these  influences  constitutes  the  home. 

The  duty  of  home-making  must  fall  on  the  mother. 
This  is  demanded  of  civilized  women,  that  they  shall 

be  fit  for  mothers,  not  merely  for  nurses 
Maternity  and         and     cQoks    and     chambermaids>      Th 
companionship. 

must  be  fit  for  the  lifelong  environment 

of  the  strongest  and  wisest  men. 


THE   WOMAN   OF   EVOLUTION   AND   PESSIMISM. 


315 


It  is  not  just  to  regard  the  male  as  the  normal  type 
of  humanity,  and  woman  as  a  modification  or  degrada- 
tion of  it. 

"Woman    is   not    undeveloped    man,    but   diverse." 

Each  sex  is  differentiated,  in  its  degree, 

Woman  not  un-      frQm    thg     intermediate     unsexed     type, 

developed  man.  ,    .        ,-  .         ,  . 

which  ot    itseli    never  existed,  save  in 

the  one-celled  protozoan. 

Because  of  the  needs  of  life,  man  has  been  differ- 
entiated in  motor  directions,  woman  in  directions  of 
feeling  and  response.  Man  has  been  compelled  to  face 
external  Nature.  Woman  must  face  humanity.  Thus 
the  initiative  in  action  is  thrown  more  and  more  on  the 
male;  the  response  of  feeling  on  the  female. 

In  this  division  of  labour  mental  and  physical  char- 
acters are  correlated.  Women  excel  in  delicacy,  in  de- 
votion, in  sympathy.  They  are  not  noted  as  explorers 
of  new  fields.  As  investigators,  inventors,  judges,  or 
warriors  their  efforts  are  on  the  whole  ineffective.  Such 
activities  are  not  in  the  line  of  duty  assigned  them 
in  the  division  of  labour.  As  defender  of  the  young, 
the  female  puts  the  male  to  shame.  No  creature  is  so 
dangerous  as  the  female  beast  at  bay.  The  defender  of 
the  young  or  the  weak  must  be  a  partisan,  not  a  judge. 

If  we  can  use  such  terms  in  relation  to  a  process  of 
Nature,  we  may  say  that  the  noblest  results  of  evolu- 
tion are  to  be  found  in  the  altruism  of  parenthood. 
The  development  of  the  "  eternal  womanly,"  the  dif- 
ferentiation of  the  mother  and  wife, 

The  altruism  of      carries  within   itgelf    the   full    compensa- 
parenthood. 

tion  for  all  that  it  has  cost. 

As  against  this  view  which  I  have  briefly  presented 
it  may  be  interesting  to  contrast  the  view  of  woman 
presented  by  the  philosophy  of  pessimism,  through  its 
ablest  exponent,  Arthur  Schopenhauer. 


316  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

The   point   of   view    of   the   intellectual    movement 
known  as  Pessimism  may  be  here  briefly  discussed. 

"  To  see  all   things  as  they  really  are,"  to  do  away 

with  all  delusions,  is  the  avowed  purpose  of  pessimism. 

To  the  extent  that  it  would  bring  men 

e  p  i  osop  y     from  dreams  to  realities,  from  supersti- 

of  pessimism. 

tion  to  science,  it  has  served  a  high  pur- 
pose. It  doubtless  represents  a  great  intellectual  ad- 
vance over  the  crude  optimistic  theories  which  it  was 
intended  to  supersede.  In  the  light  of  pessimism  the 
present  moment  is  but  a  shadow  passing  across  the  face 
of  eternity.  Human  power  and  glory  and  happiness 
are  but  transitory  illusions.  Pain  and  sorrow,  which  lie 
behind  these  at  all  times,  are  the  only  realities  in  life,  for 
whenever  the  mind  comes  in  contact  with  reality,  pain 
is  the  inevitable  product.  Under  the  search  -light  of 
pessimism,  taints  and  defects  are  visible  everywhere  in 
the  human  body  and  soul,  and  in  the  equally  human 
state.  As  everything  we  know  is  petty  and  ineffective 
and  bad,  it  is  as  bad  as  it  can  be,  and  this  world  is  the 
worst  world  possible.  To  us,  impotent  to  know,  impo- 
tent to  do,  and  impotent  to  enjoy,  the  present  moment 
has  nothing  to  offer,  and  there  is  no  other.  If  the 
Creator  be  all-wise,  he  can  not  be  all-good,  else  some 
kinder  fate  would  be  reserved  for  man. 

From  the  standpoint  of  evolution,  on  the  other  hand, 

"  every  meanest  day  is  the  conflux  of  two  eternities." 

Every   object   in    Nature,   every   event 

The  philosophy     [n  human    life    represents   the  meeting 

of  evolution.  . 

points  of  world  forces,  that  have  welled 

upward  since  the  beginning  of  time.  We  are  to  know 
things  as  they  really  are,  for  the  sake  of  knowing  what 
they  may  become,  and  the  forces  of  which  they  are  the 
product.  While  pessimism  concerns  itself  with  things, 
evolution  deals  with  forces,  the  unchanging  realities  by 


THE   WOMAN   OF   EVOLUTION   AND   PESSIMISM.  317 

which  the  changing  facts  of  life  are  endlessly  produced. 
A  child  is  only  a  child  to  pessimism,  a  mere  human  larva, 
heir  to  all  the  defects  of  human  nature,  and  bound  to 
run  the  course  over  which  its  ancestors  have  been  un- 
willingly and  ineffectively  driven.  In  the  light  of  evolu- 
tion the  child  has  all  the  grand  possibilities  of  thought 
and  action  and  love  that  go  to  the  making  of  a  man. 
It  sees  it  not  as  what  it  is  but  as  what  it  may  become. 
And  in  the  light  of  evolution,  human  life  may  be  judged 
not  by  its  failures,  but  by  the  strongest  and  most  har- 
monious representatives  of  humanity.  In  the  defects 
of  church  and  state  may  be  read  the  higher  ideals  for 
which  men  are  striving.  In  the  broken  ideals  of  the 
ethical  life  may  be  read  the  forces  inside  ourselves 
"  which  make  for  righteousness,"  and  which  are  the  reali- 
ties in  life,  rather  than  the  acts  of  greed  and  failures  of 
will  which  make  up  the  sad  facts  of  human  existence. 

In  his  remarkable  essay  on  woman,  Arthur  Schopen- 
hauer takes  her  character  and  relations  as  the  basis  of 

a  most  caustic  analysis.  Discarding  all 
Schopenhauer's  illusion  and  romance,  the  "present, 
essay  on  woman. 

poor  and    bare,     is   allowed  to  "make 

its  sneering  comment  "  on  "  the  eternal  womanly,"  and 
it  is  found  to  be  poor  stuff.  Schopenhauer  finds  woman 

to  be  merely  a  form  of  man,  modified 
oman  a  ^  ]sjature  to  make  reai  men  possible 

modified  man. 

and   comfortable.      "  Without  woman," 

he  quotes  from  Jouy,  "the  beginning  of  life  would  be 
helpless,  the  middle  without  pleasure,  the  end  without 
consolation." 

According  to  Schopenhauer,*  "  woman  is  capable  of 
no  great  labour  of  mind  or  of  body."  Her  "debt  of 

*  In  the  paragraphs  which  follow,  the  language  of  Schopen- 
hauer is  much  condensed,  only  enough  being  quoted  to  give  the 
substance  of  the  original  statements. 


gig  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

life  is  paid  not  by  what  she  does,  but  by  what   she 
suffers."     "  Sorrow  and  joy  and  action  are  not  for  her 

gentle,  peaceful,  and  trivial  life."  As 
Inefficiency  of  nnR.e  Qr  teacher  woman  often  excd  be. 
woman.  .  ...... 

cause  by  nature  she  is  childish,  frivolous, 

and  short-sighted.    For  these  reasons  she  comes  near  to 
the  hearts  of  children  and  invalids. 

When  women  are  young,  according  to  Schopenhauer, 
they  attract  men  strongly  but  without  reason.     "With 
young  girls  Nature  seems  to  have  had 
Beauty  of  in    yiew    what   jn    the    ianguage    of    tne 


young  girls.  .,  . 

drama  is  called  a  striking  effect,  as  for 

a  few  years  she  dowers  them  with  a  wealth  of  beauty 
and  is  lavish  in  her  gifts  of  charm  at  the  expense  of  all 
the  rest  of  their  life,  so  that  during  those  years  they 
may  capture  the  fancy  of  some  man  to  such  a  degree 
that  he  is  hurried  away  into  undertaking  the  honour- 
able care  of  them  in  some  form  or  other  as  long  as  they 
live  —  a  step  for  which  there  would  not  appear  to  be  any 
sufficient  warrant  if  reason  only  directed  his  thoughts. 

"  Accordingly,  Nature  has  equipped  woman,  as  she 

does  all  her  creatures,  with  the  weapons  and  implements 

requisite    for    the    safeguarding  of  her 

existence,  and  for  just  as  long  as  it  is 

necessary  for  her  to  have  them.     Here, 

as  elsewhere,  Nature  proceeds  with  her  usual  economy, 

for  just  as  the  female  ant  after  fecundation  loses  her 

wings,  which  are  then  superfluous,  nay,  actually  a  dan- 

ger to  the  business  of  breeding,  so,  after  giving  birth  to 

one  or  two  children,  a  woman  generally  loses  her  beauty, 

probably,  indeed,  for  similar  reasons. 

"And  so  we  find  that  young  girls  in 
Triviality  of  thejr  hearts  iook  upon  domestic  affairs 

women.  . 

or  work  of  any  kind  as  of  secondary 

importance,  if  not  actually  as  a  mere  jest.     The  only 


THE   WOMAN   OF   EVOLUTION   AND   PESSIMISM. 


319 


business  that  really  claims  their  earnest  attention  is 
love,  making  conquests,  and  everything  connected  with 
this — dress,  dancing,  etc. 

"  The  more  noble  and  perfect  an  animal,"  he  con- 
tinues, "  the  later  is  its  maturity.     The  development  of 

woman's  reason  ceases  at  eighteen,  while 
Early  maturity        ^   Q£  man  jg  im        fect  before  the 
of  women.  •«''«» 

of  twenty-eight.  Woman  s  reason  is  ac- 
curate only  as  to  objects  which  are  quite  near.  In  other 
regards  she  mistakes  appearance  for  reality  and  trifles 
for  truth."  Man  looks  "  before  and  after "  and  con- 
siders the  ultimate  result  of  lines  of  conduct.  From 
this  forethought  he  acquires  prudence,  and  this  makes 
care  and  anxiety  possible.  Woman  is  short-sighted  and 
extravagant ;  her  vision  is  clear  a  short  way  only. 
Hence  women  are  more  cheerful  than  men,  because 
they  live  in  the  present,  not  in  the  past ;  nor  are  they 
distressed  by  the  future.  But  with  all  this  it  is  well  for 
a  man  to  heed  a  woman's  advice,  for  she  will  show  him 
the  shortest  road  to  the  goal.  Men  see  far  in  front  of 
their  noses  and  miss  that  which  is  close  and  obvious. 
Hence  women  are  more  sober  in  judgment,  having  no 
imagination. 

Women  are  kind  to  the  unfortunate  because   they 
have  no  sense  of  justice.     Most  misfortune  is  criminal 

negligence,  Schopenhauer  argues,  and 
Kindness  of  excludes  pity,  which  would  be  treachery 

women.  .        .  .  ,  - 

to  justice.     Fixed  rules  of  conduct  are 

unknown  to  women.  Being  weaker  in  body  and  mind, 
they  are  stronger  in  craft.  The  art  of  dissimulation  is 

possessed  by  all  women,  stupid  as  well  as 
Deceit  of  women.  . 

clever.  "  Small  secrecy  verging  on  de- 
ceit," says  Charles  Reade,  "thou  art  bred  in  woman's 
bones." 

"For,"  says  Schopenhauer,  "as  lions  are  provided 


320 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


with  claws  and  teeth,  and  elephants  and  boars  with 
tusks,  bulls  with  horns,  and  the  cuttle-fish  with  its  cloud 
of  inky  fluid,  so  Nature  has  equipped  woman  for  her 
defence  and  protection  with  the  arts  of  dissimulation. 
Hence  dissimulation  is  innate  in  woman,  and  almost  as 
much  a  quality  of  the  stupid  as  of  the  clever.  It  is 
natural  for  them  to  make  use  of  it  on  every  occasion,  as 
it  is  for  those  animals  to  employ  their  means  of  defence 
they  are  when  attacked  ;  they  have  a  feeling  that  in  doing 
so  they  are  only  within  their  rights.  Therefore  a  woman 
who  is  perfectly  truthful  and  not  given  to  dissimulation 
is  perhaps  an  impossibility,  and  for  this  very  reason  they 
are  so  quick  at  seeing  through  dissimulation  in  others 
that  it  is  not  a  wise  thing  to  attempt  it  with  them." 

Women,  moreover,  live  for  the  species,  not  for  the 
individual.  If  a  woman  be  faithless  to  an  old  or  unro- 

mantic  or  inattentive  man  she  will  feel 
Woman  lives  for  nQ  remorse  jt  {&  hef  instinct  to  con. 
the  species.  . 

sider  the  interest  of  the  species,  not  of 

the  person  who  may  represent  the  species  for  the  time 
being. 

"And  since  women  exist  in  the  main  solely  for  the 
propagation  of  the  species  and  are  not  destined  for  any- 
thing else,  they  live,  as  a  rule,  more  for  the  species  than 
for  the  individual,  and  in  their  hearts  take  the  af- 
fairs of  the  species  more  seriously  than  those  of  the 
individual.  This  gives  their  whole  life  and  being  a 
certain  levity ;  the  general  bent  of  their  character  is  in 
a  direction  fundamentally  different  from  that  of  the 
man ;  and  it  is  this  which  produces  that  discord  in  mar- 
ried life  which  is  so  frequent  and  almost  the  normal 
state. 

"The  natural  feeling  between  men  is  mere  indiffer- 
ence, but  between  women  it  is  actual  enmity.  The 
reason  of  this  is  trade  jealousy,  which,  in  the  case  of 


THE   WOMAN   OF   EVOLUTION   AND   PESSIMISM. 


32I 


men,  does  not  go  beyond  the  confines  of  their  own 
particular  pursuits,  but  with  women  embraces  the  whole 
sex,  since  they  have  only  one  kind  of  business.  Even 

when  they  meet  in  the  streets  women 
Trade  jealousy  jook  aj.  Qne  another  Uke  Quelphs  and 
among  women.  .,  •  ... 

Ghibellines;  and  it  is  a  patent  fact  that 

when  two  of  them  make  first  acquaintance  with  each 
other,  they  behave  with  more  constraint  and  dissimu- 
lation than  two  men  would  show  in  a  like  case;  and 
hence  it  is  that  an  exchange  of  compliments  between 
two  women  is  a  much  more  ridiculous  proceeding  than 
between  two  men.  Further,  while  a  man  will,  as  a  gen- 
eral rule,  always  preserve  a  certain  amount  of  considera- 
tion and  humanity  in  speaking  to  others,  even  to  those 
who  are  in  a  very  inferior  position,  it  is  intolerable  to 
see  how  proudly  and  disdainfully  a  fine  lady  will  gen- 
erally behave  toward  one  who  is  in  a  lower  social  rank 
(I  do  not  mean  a  woman  who  is  in  her  service)  when- 
ever she  speaks  to  her.  The  reason  of  this  may  be 
that  with  women  differences  of  rank  are  much  more  pre- 
carious than  with  us,  because,  while  a  hundred  consid- 
erations carry  weight  in  our  case,  in  theirs  there  is  only 
one — namely,  with  which  man  they  have  found  favour, 
as  also  that  they  stand  in  much  nearer  relations  with 
one  another  than  men  do,  in  consequence  of  the  one- 
sided nature  of  their  calling.  This  makes  them  endeav- 
our to  lay  stress  upon  differences  of  rank. 

"  It  is  only  the  man  whose  intellect  is  clouded  by 
his  impulses  that  could  give  the  name  of  the  fair  sex 

to  that  undersized,  narrow-shouldered, 
The  unaesthetic  broad.hipped>  and  short-legged  race,  for 

the  whole  beauty  of  the  sex  is  bound  up 
with  the  sex-impulse.  Instead  of  calling  them  beautiful, 
there  would  be  more  warrant  for  describing  women  as 
the  unaesthetic  sex.  Neither  for  music,  nor  for  poetry, 


322 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


nor  for  fine  art,  have  they  really  and  truly  any  sense  or 
perceptibility  ;  it  is  mere  mockery  if  they  make  a  pre- 
tence of  it  in  order  to  assist  their  endeavour  to  please. 
Hence  as  a  result  of  this  they  are  incapable  of  taking  a 
purely  objective  interest  in  anything,  and  the  reason  of  it 
seems  to  me  to  be  as  follows :  A  man  tries  to  acquire 
direct  mastery  over  things,  either  by  understanding  them 
or  by  forcing  them  to  do  his  will.  But  a  woman  is  al- 
ways and  everywhere  reduced  to  obtaining  this  mastery 
indirectly — namely,  through  a  man — and  whatever  direct 
mastery  she  may  have  is  entirely  confined  to  him.  And 
so  it  lies  in  a  woman's  nature  to  look  upon  everything 
only  as  a  means  for  conquering  man  ;  and  if  she  takes  an 
interest  in  anything  else  it  is  simulated — a  mere  round- 
about way  of  gaining  her  ends  by  coquetry  and  feigning 
what  she  does  not  feel.  Hence  even  Rousseau  declared  : 
'•Women  have  in  general  no  love  for  any  art ;  they  have 
no  proper  knowledge  of  any,  and  they  have  no  genius.' 
"  No  one,"  Schopenhauer  continues,  "  who  sees  at  all 
below  the  surface  can  have  failed  to  remark  the  same 
thing.  You  need  only  observe  the  kind  of  attention 
women  bestow  upon  a  concert,  an  opera,  or  a  play — the 
childish  simplicity,  for  example,  with  which  they  keep 
on  chattering  during  the  finest  passages  in  the  greatest 
masterpieces.  If  it  is  true  that  the  Greeks  excluded 
women  from  their  theatres,  they  were  quite  right  in  what 
they  did  ;  at  any  rate,  you  would  have  been  able  to  hear 
what  they  said  upon  the  stage.  In  our  day,  besides,  or 
in  lieu  of  saying,  '  Let  a  woman  keep  silence  in  the 
church,'  it  would  be  much  to  the  point  to  say,  '  Let  a 
woman  keep  silence  in  a  theatre.'  This  might,  perhaps, 
be  put  up  in  big  letters  on  the  curtain." 


No  mastery 
of  art. 


In  art  or  letters  women  have  not  pro- 


duced a  single  great  work.    Many  women 
show  a  mastery  of  technique  in  art,  but  never  of  art. 


THE   WOMAN   OF   EVOLUTION  AND   PESSIMISM.   323 

"  The  case,"  says  Schopenhauer,  "  is  not  altered  by 
particular   and   partial   exceptions ;  taken  as   a   whole, 
women  are,  and  remain,  thoroughgoing 
Philistinism  of      philistines,  and  quite  incurable.    Hence, 
women.  ...  ,  •   ,       , 

with  that  absurd  arrangement  which  al- 
lows them  to  share  the  rank  and  title  of  their  husbands, 
they  are  a  constant  stimulus  to  his  ignoble  ambitions. 
And,  further,  it  is  just  because  they  are  Philistines  that 
modern  society,  where  they  take  the  lead  and  set  the 
tone,  is  in  such  a  bad  way.  Napoleon's  saying,  that 
women  have  no  rank,  should  be  adopted  as  the  right 
standpoint  in  determining  their  position  in  society  ;  and 
as  regards  their  other  qualities,  Chamfort  makes  the 
very  true  remark, '  They  are  made  to  trade  with  our  own 
weaknesses  and  our  follies,  but  not  with  our  reason.' 
The  sympathies  that  exist  between  them  and  men  are 
skin-deep  only,  and  do  not  touch  the  mind,  or  the  feel- 
ings, or  the  character.  They  form  the  sexus  sequtor — the 
second  sex,  inferior  in  every  respect  to  the  first ;  their 
infirmities  should  be  treated  with  consideration  ;  but  to 
show  them  great  reverence  is  extremely  ridiculous  and 
lowers  us  in  their  eyes.  When  Na- 
ture made  two  divisions  of  the  human 
unequal. 

race,  she  did  not  draw  the  line  exactly 

through  the  middle.  These  divisions  are  polar  and  op- 
posed to  each  other,  it  is  true,  but  the  difference  be- 
tween them  is  not  qualitative  merely,  it  is  also  quanti- 
tative. 

"This  is  just  the  view  which  the  ancients  took  of 
woman,  and  the  view  which  the  people  in  the  East  take 
now;  and  their  judgment  as  to  her  proper  position  is 
much  more  correct  than  ours,  with  our  old  French  no- 
tions of  gallantry  and  our  preposterous  system  of  rev- 
erence— that  highest  product  of  Teutonico-Christian 
stupidity.  These  notions  have  served  only  to  make 


324 


FOOT-NOTES   TO  EVOLUTION. 


women  more  arrogant  and  overbearing;  so  that  one  is 
occasionally  reminded  of  the  holy  apes  in  Benares, 
who,  in  the  consciousness  of  their  sanctity  and  inviol- 
able position,  think  that  they  can  do  exactly  as  they 
please. 

"  But   in  the  West   the  woman,  and   especially  the 
lady,  finds  herself  in  a  false  position  ;  for  woman  is  by 

no  means  fit  to  be  the  object  of  our 
Woman  in  Eu-  honour  and  veneration,  or  to  hold  her 
ropean  society.  . 

head  higher  than  man  and  be  on  equal 

terms  with  him.  It  would  be  a  very  desirable  thing  if 
this 'number  two  '  of  the  human  race  were  in  Europe 
also  relegated  to  her  natural  place,  and  an  end  put  to 
that  lady-nuisance,  which  not  only  moves  all  Asia  to 
laughter,  but  would  have  been  ridiculed  by  Greece  and 
Rome  as  well.  It  is  impossible  to  calculate  the  good 
effect  which  such  a  change  would  bring  about  in  our 
social,  civil,  and  political  arrangements.  There  will  be 
no  necessity  for  the  Salic  law ;  it  would  be  a  superfluous 
truism.  In  Europe,  the  lady,  strictly  so  called,  is  a 
being  who  should  not  exist  at  all ;  she 
should  be  either  a  housewife  or  a  girl 
who  hoped  to  become  one;  and  she  should  be  brought 
up  not  to  be  arrogant,  but  to  be  thrifty  and  submissive. 
It  is  just  because  there  are  such  people  as  ladies  in 
Europe  that  the  women  of  the  lower  classes — that  is  to 
say,  the  great  majority  of  the  sex — are  much  more  un- 
happy than  they  are  in  the  East.  And  even  Lord  Byron 
says :  '  Thought  of  the  state  of  women  under  the  an- 
cient Greeks — convenient  enough.  Present  state  a  rem- 
nant of  the  barbarism  of  the  chivalric  and  the  feudal 
ages — artificial  and  unnatural.  They  ought  to  mind 
home,  and  be  well  fed  and  clothed,  but  not  mixed  in 
society.  Well  educated,  too,  in  religion,  but  to  read 
neither  poetry  nor  politics,  nothing  but  books  of  piety 


THE   WOMAN   OF   EVOLUTION  AND   PESSIMISM.   325 

and  cookery.  Music,  drawing,  dancing,  also  a  little 
gardening  and  ploughing  now  and  then.  I  have  seen 
them  mending  the  roads  in  Epirus  with  great  success. 
Why  not,  as  well  as  haymaking  and  milking?'" 

The    Western    laws    of    marriage   which  make   the 

woman  equivalent  to  man  are  all  wrong,  according  to 

Schopenhauer.     There   is    no   such   equality.      If   such 

must  be,  shrewd  men  will  often  scruple 

The  laws  of  make  the  sacrifice.     These  marriage 

marriage. 

laws   drive  men    from   marriage.     This 

causes  the  increase  of  the  unhappy  class  of  old  maids, 
and  that  of  the  joyless  "  daughters  of  joy."  For  these 
reasons,  Schopenhauer  finds  a  logical  religion  in  Mor- 
monism,  by  which,  in  theory  at  least,  both  these  classes 
are  obliterated.  The  unnatural  rights  of  women  bring 
unnatural  duties.  They  are  forced  to  do  things  which 
they  can  not  do  well,  a  prolific  source  of  evil. 

The  problem  of  society  is,  then,  the  recognition  and 
regulation  of  polygamy.  By  this  means  woman  will  be 
reduced  to  "  her  true  and  natural  position  as  a  subordi- 
nate being,  and  the  lady — that  monster  of  European 
civilization  and  Teutonico-Christian  stupidity — will  dis- 
appear from  the  world,  leaving  only  women,  but  no  more 
unhappy  women  of  whom  Europe  is  now  full." 

The  love  women  have  for  children  is  instinctive,  not 
rational.  It  is  therefore  no  evidence  of  strength  of 
mind  or  morals. 

"  Women  should  not  inherit  or  control  anything. 
Their  vanity  shows  itself  only  in  love  of  show  and 
finery.  With  man  the  natural  source  of  pride  is  intel- 
lect, learning,  courage. 

"  If  the  prominence  of  woman  is  due  to  the  down- 
fall of  Sparta  and  France,  to  the  baneful  institution 
of  the  lady  the  downfall  of  modern  Europe  may  be 
ascribed. 


326  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

"  However  that  may  be,  the  false  position  which 
women  occupy,  demonstrated  as  it  is  in  the  most  glaring 

way  by  the  institution  of  the  lady,  is  a 
Dependence  of  fundamental  defect  in  our  social  scheme, 
woman.  . 

and    this    defect,   proceeding   from    the 

very  heart  of  it,  must  spread  its  baneful  influence  in  all 
directions. 

"  That  woman  is  by  nature  meant  to  obey  may  be 
seen  by  the  fact  that  every  woman  who  is  placed  in  the 
unnatural  position  of  complete  independence,  imme- 
diately'attaches  herself  to  some  man,  by  whom  she  al- 
lows herself  to  be  guided  and  ruled.  It  is  because  she 
needs  a  lord  and  master.  If  she  is  young,  it  will  be  a 
lover;  if  she  is  old,  a  priest."  * 

Such,  in  brief,  is  the  indictment  Pessimism  brings 
against  woman.  We  may  eliminate  from  it  the  weak 
discussion  of  marriage,  and  the  childish  impotence  of 

*  In  a  similar  vein  are  the  following  words,  which  Mr.  Harold 
Frederic  puts  into  the  mouth  of  his  cynical  Dr.  Ledsmar : 

"Our  boys,  for  instance,  traverse  in  their  younger  years  all 
the  stages  of  the  childhood  of  the  race.  They  have  terrifying 
dreams  of  awful  monsters  and  giant  animals  of  which  they  have 
never  so  much  as  heard  in  their  waking  hours  ;  they  pass  through 
the  lust  for  digging  caves,  building  fires,  sleeping  out  in  the 
woods,  hunting  with  bows  and  arrows — all  remote  and  ancestral 
impulses  ;  they  play  games  with  stones,  marbles,  and  so  on,  at 
regular  stated  periods  of  the  year  which  they  instinctively  know, 
just  as  they  were  played  in  the  bronze  age,  and  Heaven  only 
knows  how  much  earlier.  But  the  boy  goes  through  all  this,  and 
leaves  it  behind  him — so  completely  that  the  grown  man  feels 
himself  more  a  stranger  among  boys  of  his  own  place  who  are 
thinking  and  doing  precisely  the  things  he  thought  and  did  a 
few  years  before,  than  he  would  among  the  Kurds  or  Eskimos. 
But  the  woman  is  totally  different.  She  is  infinitely  more  pre- 
cocious as  a  girl.  At  an  age  when  her  slow  brother  is  still  stub- 
bing along  somewhere  in  the  Neolithic  period,  she  has  flown  away 
ahead  to  a  kind  of  mediaeval  stage,  or  dawn  of  medievalism, 


THE   WOMAN   OF   EVOLUTION  AND   PESSIMISM. 


327 


the  lines  of  action  which  Schopenhauer  suggests.  The 
social  problem  of  any  society  worthy  to  be  called  civil- 
ized will  not  be  solved  by  the  regulation  of  polygamy 
nor  by  the  perpetuation  of  masculine  selfishness. 

We  may  note,  too,  that  the  "  lady-nuisance  "  which 
distresses  the  philosopher  is  only  a  phase  of  the  "lord- 
nuisance  "  which  has  temporarily  stood 

in  the  way  of  the  progress  of  European 
nuisance."  '. 

democracy.     If  the  "  lady-nuisance     is 

ridiculous  to-day,  the  "  lord-nuisance"  will  be  equally 
absurd  to-morrow.  Pomp  and  fatuity  know  no  sex. 
The  dry  rot  of  life  without  effort  affects  men  and  wo- 
men alike.  Schopenhauer's  attitude  throughout  the  dis- 
cussion of  woman  is  that  of  a  blase  collector  discussing 
his  neighbour's  bric-a-brac.  He  finds  it  out  of  taste 
and  out  of  harmony — not  worth  half  it  cost.  But  it  is 
none  of  his  business,  and  he  has  no  responsibility  for  it. 

But,  waiving  all  minor  criticisms,  we  find  in  this 
harsh  review  many  elements  of  truth. 

It  is  an  expression  of  the  results  of  an  attempt  to 
"  see  things  as  they  really  are."  But  to  see  things  in 

such  fashion  is  not  to  see  the  whole 
Blindness  of  ^^  The  test  truth  Hes  jn  what 

pessimism. 

shall  be,  in  the  flow  of  the  underlying 

stream  of  tendencies.  Why  are  things  as  they  are  ? 
From  what  condition  have  they  come,  and  what  is  the 
movement  of  the  forces  which  govern  future  conditions  ? 
If  the  work  and  the  life  of  woman  seem  less  impor- 
tant than  those  of  man,  it  is  because  we  measure  them 

which  is  peculiarly  her  own.  Having  got  there,  she  stays  there  ; 
she  dies  there.  The  boy  passes  her  as  the  tortoise  did  the  hare. 
He  goes  on,  if  he  is  a  philosopher,  and  lets  her  remain  in  the  dark 
ages,  where  she  belongs.  If  he  happens  to  be  a  fool,  which  is 
customary,  he  stops  and  hangs  around  in  her  vicinity."  (Dam- 
nation of  Theron  Ware,  p.  324.) 


328 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


from  a  man's  standpoint,  not  from  that  of  humanity. 
From  the  standpoint  of  the  race,  the  sexes  can  not  be 

unequal.  The  one  sex  balances  the  other. 
Woman  from  Thg  Hne  m  tfae  j  fun  must  be  drawn 

man  s  stand-  . 

oint  evenly  and  equally.     If  in  any  race  of 

people  the  woman  does  not  do  her  share 
of  the  life  work,  the  process  of  natural  selection  sets  this 
race  aside  in  favour  of  some  one  more  normally  con- 
stituted. 

As  road  menders,  soldiers,  workmen,  we  may  admit 
the  inferiority  of  woman.      I  have    seen    women   har- 
nessed with  dogs  in  Holland,   drawing 

Unnatural  through  the  canals  a  vessel  on   which 

competition. 

a  man  sits  to  steer.     It  is  said  in  Italy 

that  "  women  are  better  than  dogs  for  carrying  bur- 
dens, but  not  so  good  as  mules."  This  may  be,  but  it 
is  not  well  for  Italy  that  its  women  are  brought  into 
competition  with  its  mules. 

"You  can  get  more  in  your  market  for  a  quart  of 
milk  than  a  quart  of  blood,"  says  Thoreau,  "  but  yours 
is  not  the  market  heroes  carry  their  blood  to."  Nor 
should  womanhood  be  forced  to  compete  in  a  market 
which  values  only  physical  strength.  But  this  labour 
market  of  Italy  or  Holland  does  not  represent  the  per- 
manent relations  of  life.  The  work  of  the  woman  lies 
primarily  with  the  young.  In  the  nursery  and  the 
schools  of  to-day  the  history  of  to-morrow  is  written. 
Doubtless  the  investigations  of  man,  his  ingenuity,  and 
his  force  have  been  tremendous  factors  in  the  history 
of  civilization.  It  is  not  necessary  to  belittle  them  to 
recognise  the  helpfulness  of  woman.  The  making  of 
men  is  the  woman's  part.  The  home  and  the  schools 
are  as  large  a  factor  in  human  progress  as  the  railway 
and  the  telegraph.  The  work  of  woman  looks  forward 
to  the  future.  As  her  work  is  important  so  is  her  edu- 


THE   WOMAN   OF   EVOLUTION  AND   PESSIMISM. 


329 


cation  vital.  Folly  and  weakness  are  as  harmful  in  the 
home  as  in  the  state.  That  which  is  to-day  in  the  home 
to-morrow  will  be  in  the  state.  The  wise  woman,  mother 
of  wise  men,  may  not  be  seen  of  the  world,  but  her  in- 
fluence for  good  is  none  the  less  potent. 

Where  the  home  is  not  sound  the  state  is  insecure. 
The  coming   man  must   spring   from   the   home.     The 

child  of  a  homeless  race  can  not  corn- 
Evolution  of  wkh  him      There  is   no  fact0f  in 

the  home.  .         . 

evolution  more  sure  to  survive  m  life 

struggles  than  the  instinct  to  care  for  the  young.  Al- 
truism prevails  because  it  is  useful,  and  this  form  of 
altruism  is  potent  above  all  else.  Care  for  the  young 
makes  the  home.  It  binds  the  parents  together.  It 
ennobles  the  sex  relation  and  makes  its  impulses  worthy 
the  name  of  love.  John  Fiske  has  maintained  that  the 
prolonged  infancy  of  man  was  the  primary  factor  in  his 
separation  as  a  higher  type  from  the  brute  creation. 
This  prolonged  infancy  demanded  a  mother's  care  and 
a  father's  support.  In  these  arose  the  home.  Even  in 
nomadic  life  the  family  kept  together,  and  the  relations 
of  the  food-winning  father  and  the  protecting  mother 
were  equal  in  value  from  the  standpoint  of  race  evolu- 
tion. From  the  home  the  school  is  a  natural  extension. 
It  is  a  further  prolongation  of  infancy  with  a  view  to 
a  higher  ultimate  development. 

But  all  this  food-winning  and  child-helping  is  a  bur- 
den to  the  individual.     The  wise   man,  Schopenhauer 
tells  us,  hesitates  to  sacrifice  his  free- 
dom in  equal  union  with  woman.     His 
freedom  for  what  ?     Who  is  he  that  he 
should  be  so  occupied  with  his  own  affairs  ?     Is  it  pleas- 
ure that  he  seeks — pleasure  for  pleasure's  sake  ?  art  for 
art's  sake?  rest  for  rest's  sake?     In  the  process  of  evo- 
lution there  will  be  no  place  for  him.     Nature  asks  her 


330  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

creatures  to  busy  themselves  along  lines  that  are  help- 
ful to  others.  The  child  of  altruism  survives.  When  the 
drone  bee — the  male — has  accomplished  his  purpose,  he 
is  ruthlessly  stung  to  death  by  the  workers.  He  is  no 
longer  needed  in  the  community.  That  he  would  live 
for  life's  sake,  that  he  would  buzz  for  buzz's  sake,  does 
not  concern  the  workers.  He  is  of  no  use  to  the  future 
— therefore  away  with  him  ! 

Let  us  for  present  purposes  accept  Schopenhauer's 

analysis  of  the  defects  of  woman's  character.     May  we 

not  say  that  for  each  real  defect  there 

is  a  historic  cause  ?   To  remove  the  wrong 
a  historic  cause. 

is  to  destroy  its  reaction.     If  women  are 

given  to  small  deceit,  it  is  because  men  have  been  ad- 
dicted to  small  tyranny.  If  women  are  short-sighted,  it 
is  because  in  the  nature  of  things  the  near  things  have 
been  woman's  province.  If  a  woman  has  not  a  judicial 
mind,  it  is  because  the  protection  of  the  child  makes  her 
necessarily  a  partisan.  If  woman  in  her  care  of  the 
species  neglects  the  individual,  it  is  because  in  the  past 
she  has  been  driven  or  sold  into  the  custody  of  indi- 
viduals not  lovable  for  themselves.  If  she  shows  in  one 
form  or  another  the  same  weaknesses  as  man,  it  is  be- 
cause she  is,  in  fact,  very  man,  bone  of  his  bone  and 
flesh  of  his  flesh.  We  are  all  poor  creatures,  and  to 
quarrel  with  the  defects  of  human  nature  is  as  futile 
as  to  hold  "a  feud  with  the  equator."  The  desire  of 
woman  to  seek  mastery  through  the  conquest  of  man  is 
in  part  an  outgrowth  of  the  militarism  of  past  genera- 
tions, when  security  was  possible  only  through  such 
means.  It  is  a  trait  of  the  lower  races  of  men,  as  of 
the  monkey  families,  that  the  male  should  be  a  tyrant. 
Whenever  tyranny  exists  it  is  met  by  deceit.  In  the 
reign  of  physical  force,  those  who  are  weak  must  win 
strength  by  the  force  of  love  or  intrigue.  This  condi- 


THE   WOMAN   OF   EVOLUTION  AND   PESSIMISM. 


331 


tion  is  not  confined  to  woman.  Those  men  who  were 
favourites  of  princes  used  the  same  methods  of  con- 
quest. Moreover,  the  power  of  a  strong 
will  over  a  weak  one  has  always  been  a 
factor  in  history,  even  though  the  strong 
will  be  in  a  weak  body.  The  freedom  of  man  has 
brought  with  it  the  freedom  of  woman.  With  woman  as 
with  man  not  all  are  ready  to  be  free.  The  fool  when 
free  shows  his  folly.  It  is  safer  for  him  to  follow  his 
class,  to  govern  his  life  by  tried  conventionality,  rather 
than  by  imperfect  reason.  The  emancipation  of  woman 
permits  the  growth  of  senseless  fads  and  meaningless 
superstitions,  distorted  desires  and  hysterical  impulses. 
But  the  emancipation  of  man  has  had  just  the  same  effect. 
In  the  long  run  all  these  things  are  outworn ;  the  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest  is  the  survival  of  the  wise. 

The  offensive  phases  of  "  new  womanhood  "  are  tem- 
porary and  self-curative.  They  are  of  the  nature  of 
fads  which  encumber  and  disguise  real  progress.  The 
woman  of  the  future  will  be  the  fit  and  equal  partner  of 
the  future  man.  As  the  wise  and  the  strong  will  prize 
the  womanly  virtues,  so  will  she  be  modest,  sympathetic, 
and  beautiful.  Nevertheless  she  need  not  lack  a  de- 
gree of  sturdy  strength,  without  which  motherhood  fails 
of  its  best  fulfilment.  Yet  in  so  far  as  the  highest 
physical  activity  and  its  coordinate  reasoning  power 
are  not  to  be  demanded  of  women  in  general,  so  in  the 
nature  of  things  must  the  brain  and  muscle  of  woman 
retain  qualities  of  immaturity.  The  accelerated  devel- 
opment of  these  qualities  in  the  male  of  a  race  "sore 
bestead  by  the  environment,"  must  leave  the  female 
relatively  undeveloped  if  judged  by  the  standard  of 
the  man. 

But,  judged  by  the  standard  of  womanhood,  man 
shows  an  equal  number  of  crude  instincts  and  embry- 


332  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

onic  traits.  In  the  division  of  labour  this  is  necessarily 
the  case.  If  it  were  not,  there  would  need  be  no  divi- 
sion of  sex,  and  womanhood  and  manhood  would  be 
identical. 

"...  Could  we  make  her  as  the  man, 
Sweet  love  were  slain.     His  dearest  bond  is  this, 
Not  like  to  like,  but  like  to  difference." 

When  woman  has  perfect  freedom  of  choice  in  mar- 
riage, there  will  be  more  love  in  the  world  than  now. 
Too  many  women  now  marry  under  du- 

e  equa  ress.     Money  or  title,  or  place  or  secu- 

marnage. 

nty,  are  not  valid  reasons  for  marriage. 

The  chances  are  that  a  union  on  such  a  basis  will  never 
prove  a  marriage  at  all.  Nor  is  it  right  that  marriage 
should  rest  on  mere  propinquity.  The  choice  of  the 
nearest  scarcely  rises  above  the  automatic  loves  of  the 
lower  animals. 

In  the  conditions  arising  from  an  expanding  civiliza- 
tion, the  art  of  being  a  woman  becomes  a  difficult  one. 

It  is  unsafe  on  the  one  hand  not  to  take 
Being  a  woman.  ...  .  .  .  . 

part  in  industrial  or  intellectual  activi- 
ties. On  the  other  hand,  to  be  absorbed  in  these  mat- 
ters may  be  to  lose  sight  of  the  more  important  func- 
tions which  must  belong  to  woman  in  any  condition  of 
social  development.  "  Woe  to  the  land  that  works  its 
women  !  "  says  Laurence  Gronland.  But  there  is  equal 
woe  to  the  land  in  which  women  find  nothing  to  do.  On 
the  human  side  idleness  and  inertia  are  just  as  destruc- 
tive to  women  as  to  men.  Brain  and  muscles  must  be 
used  each  in  its  way,  and  the  penalties  for  disuse  are 
stagnation,  ennui,  and  misery.  It  is  not  every  woman, 
as  matters  are,  who  can  find  occupation  in  household 
cares  and  in  the  training  of  children.  To  the  extent 
that  women  are  not  so  occupied  their  need  of  thought 
and  action  is  not  essentially  different  from  that  of  men. 


THE   WOMAN   OF   EVOLUTION  AND   PESSIMISM. 


333 


A  woman,  like  a  man,  must  find  something  to  do  if 
she  is  to  avoid  misery  and  decay.  Her  release  from 

the  industrial  world  is  conditional  on  the 
Release  from  fact  that  she  hag  something  better  to 

labour,  not  ,  e  , 

do  than  to  win  food  ;  something  more 
idleness. 

vital  to  social  development  than  to  add 

to  the  physical  resources  of  life.  So  long  as  society  ex- 
ists, the  "  eternal  womanly  "  will  find  its  own  sphere  of 
full  activity.  In  the  long  run  that  division  of  labour 
will  prove  best  which  justifies  itself  by  enduring. 


XIV. 
THE    STABILITY   OF   TRUTH. 

"Grau,  theurer  Freund,  ist  alle  Theorie, 
Und  griin  des  Lebens  goldner  Baum." — GOETHE. 

WITHIN  the  last   few  years  three  notable   assaults 
have  been  made  on  the  integrity  of  science.     Two  of 
these  have  come  from  the  hostile  camp 
Assaults  on  the      of  mediffival  metaphysics,  the  other  from 
integrity  of  ,  ,  *      ,  , 

science  t       very  front  of  the  army  of  science 

itself.  Salisbury,  Balfour,  and  Haeckel 
agree  in  this,  that  "  belief  "  may  rest  on  foundations  un- 
known to  "knowledge,"  and  that  the  conclusions  of  sci- 
ence may  be  subject  to  additions  and  revisions  in  accord- 
ance with  the  demands  of  "  belief."  To  some  considera- 
tions suggested  in  part  by  Balfour's  Foundations  of 
Belief  and  Haeckel's  Confession  of  Faith  of  a  Man  of 
Science,  I  invite  attention  in  the  present  paper. 

The  growing   complexity  of  civilized    life  demands 
constantly  more  knowledge  as  to  our  material  surround- 
ings and  greater  precision  in  our  recog- 
nition of  the  invisible  forces  or  tendencies 
about  us.     We  are  in  the  hands  of  the 
Fates,  and  the  greater  our  activities  the  more  evident 
become  these  limiting  conditions.     The  secret  of  man's 
power   is   to   know   his   limitations.      To    this   end   we 
need  constantly  new  accessions  of  tr*uth  as  to  the  uni- 
verse and  better  definition  of  the  truths  which  are  old. 
334 


THE   STABILITY   OF   TRUTH.  335 

Such  knowledge,  tested  and  placed  in  order,  we  call 
science.  Science  is  no  longer  individual.  It  is  the 
gathered  wisdom  of  the  race.  Only  a  part  of  it  can  be 
grasped  by  any  one  man.  Each  must  enter  into  the 
work  of  others.  Science  is  the  flower  of  the  altruism  of 
the  ages,  by  which  nothing  that  lives  "  liveth  for  itself 
alone."  The  recognition  of  facts  and  laws  is  the 
province  of  science.  We  only  know  what  lies  about  us 
from  our  own  experience  and  that  of  others,  this  experi- 
ence of  others  being  translated  into  terms  of  our  own 
experience  and  more  or  less  perfectly  blended  with  it. 
We  can  find  the  meaning  of  phenomena  only  from  our 
reasoning  based  on  these  experiences.  All  knowledge 
we  can  attain  or  hope  to  attain,  in  so  far  as  it  is  knowl- 
edge at  all,  must  be  stated  in  terms  of  human  experi- 
ence. The  laws  of  Nature  are  not  the  products  of  sci- 
ence. They  are  the  human  glimpses  of  that  which  is 
the  "  law  before  all  time." 

Thus   human    experience    is    the    foundation  of   all 
knowledge.     Even  innate  ideas,  if  such 
Human  experi-      ideas   exist,  are   derived   in   some   way 
ence  the  basis  of   from  knowledge  possessed   by  our  an- 
human  knowl-  .  J 

ecj  cestors,  as  innate  impulses  to  action  are 

related  to  ancestral  needs  for  action. 

But  is  human  experience  the  basis  also  of  belief  as 
it  is  of  knowledge  ? 

This  raises  the  further  question,  Is  "to  believe" 
more  than  "  to  know  "  ?  Shall  a  sane  man  extend  belief 

in  directions  where  he  has  no  knowledge 
Knowledge  and  . 

belief. 

power  to  act  ?     Can  Belief  soar  in  space 

not  traversable  by  "organized  common  sense"?  If 
such  distinction  is  made  between  "knowing"  and  "be- 
lieving," which  of  the  two  has  precedence  as  a  guide 
for  action  ?  Is  belief  to  be  tested  by  science  ?  Or  is 
23 


336  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

science  useful  only  where  belief  is  indifferent  to  the 
subject-matter?  If  belief  is  subordinate  to  the  tests  of 
science,  to  be  accepted  or  rejected  in  the  degree  of  its 
accord  with  human  experience,  then  it  is  simply  an 
annex  to  science,  a  footnote  to  human  experience,  and 
the  authority  of  the  latter  is  supreme.  If,  however, 
truth  comes  to  us  from  sources  outside  of  human  ex- 
perience it  must  come  in  some  pure  form,  free  from 
human  errors.  As  such  it  must  claim  the  first  place. 
In  this  event  the  progress  of  science  will  be  always  on 
a  lower  plane  than  the  progress  of  belief. 

In  a  recent  address  before  the  British  Association  for 
the  Advancement  of  Science,  the  Marquis  of  Salisbury 
made  in  brief  this  contention  :  The  cen- 
Views  of  the          traj  thought  of  modern  science  is  evolu- 


Marquis  of 
Salisbury. 


tion,  the  change  from  the  simple  to  the 


complex.  This  implies,  in  his  judg- 
ment, not  only  the  fundamental  unity  of  all  life,  but  the 
fundamental  unity  of  all  matter,  and  perhaps  of  all 
force  as  well.  In  spite  of  the  claims  of  scientific  men 
even  the  fact  of  organic  evolution  is  far  from  demon- 
strated ;  while  of  inorganic  evolution,  the  development 
of  the  chemical  elements,  science  can  tell  us  nothing. 
Wherefore  the  marquis,  in  view  of  the  failure  of  science 
to  keep  up  with  the  progress  of  belief,  grows  jocose 
and  patronizing.  His  advice  to  his  scientific  associates 
might  be  stated  in  the  words  of  Thackeray,  that  "  we 
should  think  small  beer  of  ourselves  and  pass  around 
the  bottle." 

More  recently  another  British  statesman,  Mr.  Arthur 
J.  Balfour,  has  discussed  the  Foundations  of  Belief.     He 

contends  that  the  methods  of  science  can 

nOt  g'V6   US  absolute  truth'      Its  methods 
are  "of  the  earth,  earthy."      Its  claim 
of  trust  in  the  infallibility  of  its  own  processes  has  no 


THE   STABILITY   OF   TRUTH. 


337 


higher  authority  than  the  claim  of  infallibility  made  at 
times  by  certain  religious  organizations  ;  for,  as  only 
the  senses  and  the  reason  can  be  appealed  to  in  support 
of  the  claims  of  the  senses  and  the  reason,  the  argument 
of  science  is  of  necessity  reasoning  in  a  circle.  Science 
can  give  us  no  ground  solid  enough  to  bear  the  weight 
of  belief.  Belief  must  exist,  and  it  may  therefore  rest 
on  the  innate  needs  of  man  and  the  philosophy  which  is 
built  on  these  needs  in  accordance  with  the  authority 
which  the  human  soul  finds  sufficient. 

Balfour  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  human  ex- 
perience is  not  in  its  essence  objective.     It  consists  only 
of    varying    phases    of    consciousness. 
Human  experi-      These     hases  of  consciousness  at  best 
ence  not  objec-  .  _,, 

tive  only  point  toward  truth.     They  are  not 

truth  itself.  They  vary  with  the  vary- 
ing nerve  cells  of  each  individual  creature  on  whom 
phases  of  consciousness  are  impressed,  and  again  with 
the  changes  in  the  cells  themselves.  The  tricks  of  the 
senses  are  well  known  in  psychology,  as  is  also  the  fail- 
ure of  the  senses  as  to  material  outside  their  usual  range. 
Life  is  at  best  "in  a  dimly  lighted  room,"  and  all  the 
objects  about  us  are  in  their  essence  quite  different  from 
what  they  seem.  This  essence  is  unknown  and  unknow- 
able. We  are  well  aware  that  we  have  no  power  to 
recognise  all  phases  of  reality.  The  electric  condition 
of  an  object  may  be  as  real  as  its  colour  or  its  tempera- 
ture, and  yet  none  of  our  senses  respond  to  it.  Our 
eyes  give  but  an  octave  of  the  vibrations  we  call  light, 
and  our  ears  are  dull  to  all  but  a  narrow  range  in  pitch 
of  sound. 

Likewise  is  reason  to  be  discredited.  The  common- 
est things  become  unknown  or  impossible  when  viewed 
"in  the  critical  light  of  philosophy."  Balfour  shows 
that  the  simple  affirmation  "  the  sun  gives  light,"  loses 


. 


338  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

all  its  meaning  and  possibility  when  taken  out  of  the 
category  of  human  experience  and  discussed  in  terms  of 

philosophy.  In  like  manner  can  any 
Ineffectiveness  simple  fact  b  mad  to  appear  as  myth 
of  reason. 

or  dream.      A  man  can   be  brought  to 

doubt  the  existence  of  himself  or  of  any  object  about 
him.  For  instance,  take  the  discussion  of  "  John's  John  " 
and  of  "Thomas's  John,"  as  given  by  Dr.  Holmes.  Is 
the  real  John  the  John  he  appears  to  John  himself  ?  Or 
is  he  real  only  in  the  form  in  which  Thomas  regards 
him,  or  as  he  looks  to  Richard  and  Henry,  whose  inter- 
est in  him  is  progressively  less  ?  All  that  we  know  of 
the  external  universe  is  derived  from  impressions  made 
directly  or  indirectly  on  our  nervous  systems  and  from 
recorded  impressions  made  on  the  systems  of  others: 
and  a  part  of  this  external  universe  we  ourselves  are. 
All  that  we  know  even  of  ourselves  is  that  which  is 
external  to  ourselves.  Thus,  with  all  this,  each  man 
forms  in  his  mind  a  universe  of  his  own.  "  My  mind 
to  me  a  kingdom  is,"  and  this  kingdom  in  all  its  parts 
is  somewhat  different  from  any  other  mental  kingdom. 
It  is  continually  changing.  It  was  made  but  once  and 
will  never  be  duplicated.  When  my  vital  processes 
cease,  this  kingdom  will  vanish  "  like  the  baseless  fabric 
of  a  vision,  leaving  not  a  wreck  behind."  Our  mind 
is  of  the  "  stuff  that  dreams  are  made  of " ;  and  our 
bodies — what  are  they  ?  Physically  each  man  is  an 
alliance  of  animals,  each  one  of  a  single  cell,  each  cell 
with  its  processes  of  life,  growth,  death,  and  reproduc- 
tion, each  one  with  its  own  "  cell-soul "  which  presides 
over  these  processes.  In  the  alliance  of  these  cells, 
forming  tissues  and  organs,  we  have  the  phenomena  of 
mutual  help  and  mutual  dependence.  In  man  we  find 
the  phenomena  of  animal  life  on  a  larger  and  more 
differentiated  scale  than  in  the  lower  forms,  but  to  em- 


THE   STABILITY   OF   TRUTH. 


339 


phasize  this  in  its  details  obscures  the  fact  of  self. 
What  is  the  vital  force  which  holds  these  alliances  to- 
gether, and  is  it  after  all  more  than  another  name  for 
the  movement  of  molecules  ?  And  of  what  are  our  cells 
composed  ?  Carbon,  oxygen,  hydrogen,  nitrogen,  we 
know,  by  name ;  but  what  are  these  in  essence,  and 
how  are  they  different  one  from  another  ?  Does  matter 
really  exist  ?  Mathematicians  have  claimed  that  all  re- 
lations of  ponderable  matter  and  force 
might  hold  if  the  atoms  of  matter  were 
not  realities,  but  simply  relations.  Each 
of  these  atoms  possessed  of  attraction  or  weight  may 
be  a  vortex  ring  or  eddy  in  the  ether,  of  which  the  ulti- 
mate units  have  vibration  but  not  attraction.  If,  there- 
fore, the  body  of  man  be  an  alliance  of  millions  of  ani- 
mal cells,  each  cell  formed  of  millions  of  eddies  in  an 
inconceivable  and  impossible  ether ;  if  all  things  around 
us  are  recognised  only  by  their  effect  on  the  most  un- 
stable part  of  this  unstable  structure,  then  again  "  let 
us  think  small  beer  of  ourselves  and  pass  around  the 
bottle." 

But,  again,  we  must  remember  that  the  conclusions 

of  science  represent  human  experience.     Each  fact  or 

law  must  be  expressed  in  terms  of  gen- 

In  terms  of  hu-   eralized  human  experience,  if   it  is  ex- 

man  experience. 

pressed  or  made  intelligible  at  all.     To 

such  terms  the  word  reality  applies,  and  beyond  such 
reality  we  have  never  gone.  Apparently  beyond  it  we 
can  not  go,  at  least  in  the  only  life  we  have  ever  known. 
Balfour's  plea  for  " philosophic  doubt"  of  the  reality  of 
the  subject-matter  of  science  is  simply  a  rhetorical  trick 
of  describing  the  known  in  terms  of  the  unknown.  By 
the  same  process  we  may  call  a  fishwife  an  "abracada- 
bra "  or  an  "  icosahedron,"  and  by  the  same  process  we 
can  build  out  of  the  commonest  materials  "  an  occult 


340 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


science"  or  a  new  " theosophy."     The  "measure  of  a 
man  "  is  the  basis  of  human  knowledge,  and  whatever 
can  not  be  brought  to  this  measure  is 
no    part    of    knowledge.      In    converse 
fashion  Balfour  speaks  of  the  unknown 
in  terms  of  the  known,  of  the  infinite  in  terms  of  hu- 
man experience.     This  gives  to  his  positive  "  founda- 
tions of  belief "  an  appearance  of  reality  as  fallacious  as 
the  unreality  he  assigns  to  the  foundations  of  science. 
This   appearance  of   reality   is   the   base  of   Haeckel's 
sneer  at  the  current  conception  of  the  Divine  Being  as  a 
"gaseous  vertebrate." 

It  is  perfectly  easy  for  science  to  distinguish  be- 
tween subjective  and  objective  nerve  conditions.  It 

can  separate  those  produced  by  subiec- 
Nature  of  sanity.  .  J ,  J 

tive  nervous  derangements,  or  by  con- 
ditions already  passed,  from  those  which  are  contempo- 
raneous impressions  of  external  things.  It  is  perfectly 
easy  for  common  sense  to  do  the  same.  To  be  able  to 
do  so  is  the  essence  of  sanity.  The  test  of  sanity  is  its 
liveableness,  for  insanity  is  death.  The  "borderland  of 
spirit,"  of  which  we  hear  so  much  of  late — the  land 
where  subjective  and  objective  creations  jostle  each 
other  at  will — is  the  borderland  of  death.  The  con- 
tinued existence  of  animals  and  men  is  based  on  the 
adequacy  of  their  sensations  and  the  veracity  of  their 
actions.  .  The  existence  of  any  creature  is  in  general 
proof  of  the  sanity  of  its  ancestry,  or  at  least  of  the 
sanity  of  those  who  controlled  the  actions  of  its  an- 
cestors. 

This  veracity  is  gauged  by  the  degree  of  coincidence 
of  subjective  impressions  and  objective  truth.  He  who 
makes  a  fool's  paradise  or  a  fool's  hell  of  the  world 
about  him  is  not  allowed  to  live  in  it.  This  fact  in  all 
its  bearings  must  stand  as  a  proof  that  the  universe  is 


THE   STABILITY   OF   TRUTH.  341 

outside  of  man  and  not  within  him.  In  this  objective 
universe  which  lies  outside  ourselves  we  find  "  the  cease- 
less flow  of  force  and  the  rational  intelligence  that  per- 
vades it."  No  part  of  it  can  be  fully 
The  infinite  understood  by  us,  but  in  it  we  find  no 

understanding.  .    ,  , 

chance  movement,  "  no  variableness  nor 

shadow  of  turning."  That  such  a  universe  exists  seems 
to  demand  some  intelligence  capable  of  understanding 
it,  of  stating  its  properties  in  terms  of  absolute  truth, 
as  distinguished  from  those  of  human  experience.  Only 
an  Infinite  Being  can  be  conceived  as  doing  this,  hence 
such  knowledge  must  enter  into  our  conception  of  the 
Infinite  Being,  whatever  may  be  our  theology  in  other 
respects ;  for,  to  know  any  object  or  phenomenon  in 
its  fulness,  "all  in  all,"  "we  should  know  what  God 
is  and  man  is." 

It  is  therefore  no  reproach  to  human  science  that  it 
deals  with  human  relations,  not  with  absolute  truths. 
"  The  ultimate  truths  of  science,"  Dr.  Schurman  has 
said,  "  rest  on  the  same  basis  as  the  ultimate  truths 
of  philosophy " — that  is,  on  a  basis  that  transcends 
human  experience.  This  is  true,  for  science  has  no 
"  ultimate  truths."  There  are  none  known  to  man. 
"The  perfect  truth,"  says  Lessing,  "is  but  for  Thee 
alone."  With  ultimate  truths  human  philosophy  tries 
in  some  fashion  to  deal.  To  look  at  the  universe  in 
some  degree  through  the  eyes  of  God  is  the  aim  of 
philosophy.  In  its  aim  it  is  most  noble.  Its  efforts  are 
a  source  of  strength  in  the  conduct  of  human  life.  But 
its  conclusions  are  not  truth.  They  range  from  the 
puerile  to  the  incomprehensible,  and  only  science,  that 
is,  "  common  sense,"  can  distinguish  the  two.  For  this 
reason,  just  in  proportion  as  philosophy  is  successful, 
it  is  unfit  to  serve  as  a  basis  of  human  action.  Human 
knowledge  and  action  have  human  limitations.  The 


342 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


chief  of  these  is  that  whatever  can  not  be  stated  in 
terms  of  human  experience  is  unintelligible  to  man. 
Whatever  can  not  be  thought  can  not  be  lived. 

Philosophy  has  its  recognised  methods  of  procedure. 
These  are  laid  down   in   the  mechanism  of  the  human 

brain  itself.     Science   has   found   these 

The  test  of  truth.  .. 

methods  untrustworthy  as   a   means  of 

reaching  objective  truth.  The  final  test  of  truth  is  this : 
"  Can  we  make  it  work  ?  Can  we  trust  our  lives  to 
it?"  This  test  the  conclusions  of  philosophy  can  not 
meet.  In  so  far  as  they  do  so  they  are  conclusions  of 
science.  As  science  advances  in  any  field,  philosophy  is 
driven  out  of  it.  The  fact  has  been  often  noted,  that 
every  great  conclusion  of  science  has  been  anticipated 
by  philosophy,  most  of  them  by  the  philosophy  of  the 
Greeks.  But  every  theory  science  has  shown  to  be 
false  has  been  likewise  anticipated.  The  Greeks  taught 
the  theory  of  development  centuries  before  Darwin. 
But  if  Darwin's  studies  in  life  variation  had  led  to  any 
other  result  whatsoever,  he  would  have  been  equally 
anticipated  by  the  Greeks.  In  other  words,  every  con- 
ceivable guess  as  to  the  origin  and  meaning  of  familiar 
phenomena  has  been  exhausted  by  philosophy.  Some 
of  these  guesses  contain  elements  of  truth.  Which  of 
these  has  such  elements  it  is  the  business  of  science  to 
find  out.  Philosophy  has  no  means  of  doing  so.  A 
truth  not  yet  shown  to  be  true  is  in  science  not  a 
truth.  It  has  no  more  validity  than  any  other  general- 
ization not  shown  to  be  false.  Helm- 
The  matter  phi-  holtz  tdls  us  that  philosophy  deals  with 

wiSthPhy  df  such  "schlechtes  St°ff"  such  bad  subject- 

matter,  that  it  can  give  no  trustworthy 
conclusions.  Science  alone  can  give  the  test  of  human 
life.  The  essence  of  this  test  is  experiment.  The  tests 
of  philosophy  are  mainly  these:  "Is  the  conception 


THE   STABILITY   OF   TRUTH. 


343 


plausible  ?  Has  it  logical  continuity  ?  Is  it  satisfying 
to  the  human  heart?"  And  in  this  connection  the  fig- 
urative word  "heart  "  is  best  left  undefined.  In  other 
words,  the  sources  and  tests  of  philosophy  are  alike 
subjective,  intellectual  or  emotional.  If  we  take  from 
philosophy  the  "  heart  "  element,  the  personal  equation, 
it  becomes  logic  or  mathematics.  Mathematics  is  meta- 
physics working  through  methods  of  precision.  It  is 
a  most  valuable  instrument  for  the  study  of  the  rela- 
tions and  ramifications  of  knowledge,  but  it  can  give  no 
addition  to  knowledge  itself.  Dr.  William  James  defines 
metaphysics  as  "  the  persistent  attempt  to  think  clearly." 
This  definition  is  good  so  far  as  it  goes,  but  to  think 
clearly  is  a  function  of  science  also.  Metaphysics  is 
rather  the  "  attempt  to  think  clearly "  in  fields  where 
exact  data  are  unattained  or  unattainable. 

For  example,  the  claim  is  made  in  the  name  of  evo- 
lutionary philosophy  that  all  matter  is  one  in  essence, 

therefore    all    the    chemical    elements, 
Protyl. 

some  seventy  in  number,  must  be  the 

same  in  substance.  In  this  case  all  must  be  derived 
from  the  same  primitive  stuff,  and  the  hypothetical  basis 
of  all  ponderable  matter  has  been  called  protyl.  As  a 
working  theory  this  is  most  ingenious.  But  is  it  science  ? 
Is  it  worthy  of  belief  ?  Certainly  science  knows  nothing 
as  yet  of  the  identity  of  these  elements.  In  a  general 
way  science  is  finding  out  that  the  processes  of  Nature 
are  more  complex  than  man  had  supposed,  while  the 
elements  on  which  these  processes  rest,  matter  and 
force,  are  more  simple.  How  far  can  this  generaliza- 
tion go  ?  To  every  test  human  experience  has  devised 
each  chemical  element  remains  the  same,  its  atoms  un- 
changeable as  well  as  indestructible.  Therefore  to 
speak  of  them  as  forms  of  one  substance  is  to  go  beyond 
knowledge.  Science  does  not  teach  this.  But  to  phi- 


344 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


losophy  this  offers  no  difficulty.  It  is  still  plausible  to 
suppose  that  by  some  combinations  of  primitive  units 
these  variant  atoms  are  formed.  Such  an  idea  would 
have  logical  continuity,  and  as  we  are  becoming  used  to 
notions  of  primal  unity,  we  find  such  an  idea  satisfying 
to  our  consciousness.  If  this  be  true,  somewhere,  some- 
how, lead  will  be  resolved  into  its  primal  elements,  and 
these  elements  may  be  reunited  in  the  form  of  gold. 
Then  will  the  dream  of  the  alchemist  become  fact ; 
but  not  until  then — which  is  a  matter  of  the  greatest 
importance.  Such  transmutation  is  as  yet  no  part  of 
knowledge.  We  certainly  do  not  know  that  lead  can  be 
changed  into  that  which  is  transmutable  into  gold.  We 
do  not  know  it,  I  say  ;  but  may  we  believe  it  ?  Is  the 
foundation  of  belief  less  secure  than  that  of  knowledge  ? 
Can  we  trust  philosophy  to  tell  us  what  to  believe, 
while  we  must  look  to  science  to  tell  us  what  we  know  ? 

This  brings  us  to  the  question  of  definitions.  If 
knowledge  and  belief  are  of  like  rank,  both  must  rest  on 
science,  and  the  results  of  philosophy  must  come  to  sci- 
ence only  as  hints  or  suggestions  as  to  future  lines  of 
research. 

If  knowledge  implies  stability,  and  belief  does  not, 
the  relation  of  the  two  is  also  clear.  In  that  case  belief 
would  be  a  word  of  light  meaning,  expressive  of  whim 
or  of  the  balance  of  probabilities  in  association  with 
prejudice.  Belief  would  then  be  the  pretense  of  knowl- 
edge, as  compared  with  knowledge  itself.  Along  its 
paths  life  can  not  march  with  courage  and  effectiveness. 
It  is  not  for  such  beliefs  as  this  that  the  martyrs  lived  or 
died.  Their  inspiration  was  the  positive  belief  of  science, 
or  the  negative  belief  of  the  falsity  of  the  ideas  tyranny 
or  superstition  had  forced  upon  them. 

To  avoid  a  discussion  foreign  to  my  purpose,  I  wish, 
if  possible,  to  separate  the  word  "  belief,"  as  used  in  this 


THE   STABILITY   OF   TRUTH.  345 

paper,  from  the  word  "religion."  The  essence  of  "be- 
lief "  is  the  categorical  statement  of  propositions.  These 
may  be  built  into  a  creed,  which  word  is  the  Latin  syno- 
nym of  "belief." 

"  Religion  "  implies  rather  a  condition  of  the  mind 
and  heart,  an  attitude,  not  a  formula.  Faith,  hope, 

charity  do  not  rest  on  logic  or  obser- 
Religion  and  vation.  Religion  implies  a  reverent  at- 
belief.  .  . 

titude   toward    the     universe     and     its 

forces — a  tender  feeling  toward  one's  fellow-mortals. 
"  Pure  religion  and  undefiled  "  has  never  formulated  a 
"  creed,"  has  never  claimed  for  itself  orthodoxy.  It  has 
no  stated  ritual  and  no  recognised  cult  of  priests.  Much 
that  passes  conventionally  as  religious  belief  among 
men  has  no  such  quality  or  value.  It  is  simply  the 
dttris  of  our  grandfathers'  science.  While  religion  and 
belief  become  entangled  in  the  human  mind,  so  as  not  to 
be  easily  separable,  the  one  is  not  necessarily  a  product 
of  the  other. 

Most  that  is  considered  vital  in  religious  belief  does 
not  involve  objective  propositions.  It  is  rather  associ- 
ated with  personal  character  or  temperament,  and  its 
generalizations  must  be  expressed  in  terms  more  or  less 
metaphorical  or  poetical,  for  their  origin  is  largely  sub- 
jective, and  no  terms  of  purely  human  experience  are 
adequate  for  their  definition.  Such,  for  example,  is  the 
statement  of  belief  that  "  the  heart  of  the  universe  is 
sound,"  that  "  God  is  Love,"  that  "  Love  is  the  greatest 
thing  in  the  world,"  or  that  "there  is  a  force  outside 
ourselves  that  makes  for  righteousness."  Such  expres- 
sions imply  the  perfect  harmony  of  natural  laws.  Such 
laws — as  Agassiz  has  expressed  it — are  "the  thoughts 
or  operations  of  the  highest  powers  in  the  universe — 
the  highest  Something,  however  we  may  choose  to  re- 
gard it."  With  belief  of  this  sort  science  has  no  quarrel, 


346  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

for  these  broad  statements  of  personal  faith  yield  no 
deductions  which  conflict  with  objective  facts  of  expe- 
rience. 

As  the  third  of  these  efforts  to  discredit  science  and 
its  methods  I  have  placed  Professor  Haeckel's  recent 

address,  The  Confession  of  Faith  of  a 
Haeckel's  Con-  M  f  g  j  Thig  remarkable  work 

fession  of  Faith.      . 

is  an  eloquent  plea  for  the  acceptance 

of  the  philosophic  doctrine  of  monism  as  the  fundamental 
basis  of  science.  This  doctrine  once  adopted,  we  have 
the  groundwork  for  large  deductions  which  forestall  the 
slow  conclusions  of  science  ;  for  monism  necessitates 
belief  in  certain  scientific  hypotheses  resting  as  yet  on 
no  foundation  in  human  experience,  incapable  as  yet  of 

scientific  verification,  but  which   are   a 

Monism.  r      ,  .     .  , 

necessary   part   ot    the   monistic   creed. 

The  primal  conception  of  monism  is  that  there  lives  one 
spirit  in  all  things,  and  that  the  whole  cognizable  world 
is  constituted  and  has  been  developed  in  accordance 
with  one  common,  fundamental  law.  This  involves  the 
essential  oneness  of  all  things,  matter  and  force,  object 
and  spirit,  Nature  and  God.  This  philosophical  concep- 
tion of  monism  and  pantheism  can  not  be  made  intelli- 
gible to  us,  because  it  can  be  stated  in  no  terms  of  hu- 
man experience.  But  it  has  certain  necessary  derivatives, 
according  to  Haeckel,  and  these  are  intelligible  because 
their  subject-matter  is  available  for  scientific  experiment. 
First  among  these  postulates,  called  by  Haeckel  "  ar- 
ticles of  faith,"  comes  "  the  essential  unity  of  organic 
and  inorganic  Nature,  the  former  having 
Unity  of  organic  been  evolved  from  the  ]atter  only  at  a 
and  inorganic  ...  .  ,  ,,  „.  .  .  . 

Nature  relatively  recent  period.       This  involves 

the  "  spontaneous  generation  "  of  life 
from  inorganic  matter.  It  also  resolves  "  the  vital  force," 
or  the  force  which  appears  in  connection  with  protoplas- 


THE    STABILITY   OF   TRUTH. 


347 


mic  structures,  into  properties  shown  by  certain  carbon 
compounds  under  certain  conditions.  Life  is  thus  in  a 
sense  an  emanation  of  carbon,  "  the  true  maker  of  life," 
according  to  Haeckel,  "  being  the  tetraedral  carbon 
molecule." 

This  "article  of  faith  "  implies  also  the  unity  of  the 
chemical  elements,  each  of  which  is  a  product  of  the 

evolution  of  the  primal  unit  of  matter 
Unity  of  chem-  and  force  Force  and  matter  are  Hke. 
ical  elements.  .  . 

wise  one,  because  neither  appears  except 

in  the  presence  of  the  other.  The  inheritance  of  acquired 
characters  is  also  made  a  corollary  of  monistic  belief. 

Now  all  these  hypotheses  are  possibly  true,  but  none 
of  them  are  as  yet  conclusions  of  science.  They  meet 
the  conditions  required  by  philosophy. 
They  are  plausible.  They  have  the 
merit  of  logical  continuity,  and,  except- 
ing to  those  persons  biased  by  early  subjection  to  con- 
trary notions,  they  "  satisfy  the  human  heart."  There 
should  be  no  natural  repugnance  to  monism  or  to  pan- 
theism, difficult  as  it  is  to  associate  the  idea  of  truth 
and  reality  with  either,  or  with  the  opposite  of  either. 
Speaking  for  myself,  I  feel  no  prejudice  against  them. 
They  lend  themselves  to  poetry ;  they  appeal  to  the 
human  heart.  In  Haeckel's  own  words,  referring  to 
something  else  :  "  Such  hereditary  articles  of  faith  take 
root  all  the  more  firmly  the  further  they  are  removed 
from  a  rational  knowledge  of  Nature,  and  enveloped  in 
the  mysterious  mantle  of  mythological  poesy."  The 
present  resistance  to  them  may  in  time  be  turned  into 
superstitious  reverence  for  them ;  for,  of  all  the  philo- 
sophic doctrines  brought  down  as  lightning  from  heaven 
for  the  guidance  of  plodding  man,  these  seem  most  at- 
tractive, and  least  likely  to  conflict  with  the  conclu- 
sions of  science. 


348  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

But  can  we  give  them  belief  ?     Let  us  pass  by  the 
doctrine  of  monism,  with  which  science  can  not  concern 
itself.     What  of  the  corollaries  ?     Spon- 
Spontaneous          taneous    generation,    for    example,    has 
generation  not        ,  .         .       .         ,  . 

science  been   the    basis   of   many   experiments. 

Like  the  transmutation  of  metals,  it 
seems  reasonable  to  philosophy.  The  one  idea  has 
been  the  will-o'-the-wisp  of  biology  as  the  other  has 
of  chemistry.  We  know  absolutely  nothing  of  how,  if 
ever,  non-life  becomes  life.  So  far  as  we  know,  genera- 
tion from  first  to  last  has  been  one  unbroken  series — all 
life  from  life.  We  have  no  reason  to  believe  that  spon- 
taneous generation  exists  under  any  conditions  we  have 
ever  known.  Wre  have  likewise  reason  to  believe  that  if 
it  exists  at  all  we  have  no  way  of  recognising  it.  The 
organisms  we  know  have  all  had  a  long  history.  Even 
the  simplest  ever  examined  shows  traces  of  a  long  an- 
cestry, a  long  process  of  natural  selection,  and  of  many 
concessions  to  environment.  We  know  of  no  life  th^at 
does  not  show  such  concessions.  We  know  no  creature 
that  does  not  show  homologies  with  all  other  living  be- 
ings whatsoever.  So  far  as  this  fact  goes,  it  tends  to 
show  that  all  life  comes  from  one  common  stock,  a  single 
generation  or  creation.  If  this  be  true,  spontaneous 
generation,  whatever  it  may  be,  is  not  a  phenomenon  of 
frequent  occurrence. 

If  life  does  now  appear  without  living  parentage,  if 
organisms  fresh  from  the  mint  of  creation  are  now  devel- 
oped from  inorganic  matter,  they  are  so  simple  that  we 
can  not  know  them.  They  are  so  small  that  we  can  not 
find  them.  They  would  be  made,  we  may  suppose,  each 
of  a  small  number  of  molecules.  If  there  is  truth  in  the 
calculations  of  Lord  Kelvin  and  others,  that  a  molecule 
in  a  drop  of  water  is  as  small  as  a  marble  in  comparison 
with  the  earth,  then  we  may  not  look  for  these  creatures. 


THE   STABILITY   OF    TRUTH. 


349 


If  we  can  not  find  them,  we  do  not  know  that  they  exist. 
If  we  do  not  know  that  they  exist,  shall  we  believe  that 
they  do  ?  Is  it  not  better,  as  Emerson  suggests,  that 
men  should  not  "  pretend  to  know  and  believe  what  they 
do  not  really  know  and  believe  "  ? 

It  may  be  that  the  present  existence  of  life  in  a 
world  once  lifeless  renders  spontaneous  generation  a 
"  logical  necessity."  But  the  "  logical  necessity  "  ex- 
ists in  our  minds,  not  in  Nature.  Science  knows  no 
"  logical  necessity,"  for  the  simple  reason  that  we  are 
never  able  to  compass  all  the  possibilities  in  any  given 
case. 

If  we  are  to  apply  philosophic  tests  to  the  theories 
of  reincarnation,  we  may  find  them  equally  eligible  as 

articles  of  belief.    They  are  plausible,  to 

Reincarnation.  .  ... 

some  minds  at  least;  they  have  logical 

continuity.  They  are  satisfying  to  the  human  heart ; 
at  least  this  is  claimed  by  their  advocates.  Their  chief 
fault  is  that  science  knows  nothing  of  them,  and  her 
inductions  yield  them  no  support.  In  other  words, 
their  only  reality  is  that  of  the  visions  of  dreamland. 
From  the  objective  side  their  postulates  and  arguments 
have  no  existence.  The  whole  thing  is  meaningless.  If 
plausibility  and  acceptability  serve  as  sufficient  founda- 
tions for  belief,  then  belief  itself  is  a  frail  and  transient 
thing,  no  more  worthy  of  respect  than  prejudice,  from 
which,  indeed,  it  can  not  be  distinguished. 

Haeckel  recognises  this  difference  clearly  enough  by 
using  the  term  belief  for  "hypotheses  or  conjectures  of 

more  or  less  probability  "  by  which  "  the 
Haeckel's  defini-  empirical  investigation  must  leave 

tion  of  belief.  l     .  ,-,,,,,      « r™          „   . 

in  science  are  filled  up.       "  These,     he 

says,  "  we  can  not  indeed  for  a  time  establish  on  a  secure 
basis,  and  yet  we  may  make  use  of  them  in  the  way  of 
explaining  phenomena,  in  so  far  as  they  are  not  incon- 


350  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

sistent  with  a  rational  knowledge  of  Nature."  "Such 
rational  hypotheses,"  he  says,  "  are  scientific  articles  of 
faith."  It  is  not  clear,  however,  that  so  large  a  name  as 
faith  need  be  taken  for  working  hypotheses  confessed- 
ly uncertain  or  transient.  The  words  "make-believe," 
used  by  Huxley  in  some  such  connection,  might  well  be 
applied  to  hypothetical  "  articles  of  faith  "  which  have  no 
basis  in  scientific  induction.  But  it  seems  to  me  that 
it  is  not  necessary  for  the  man  of  science  to  say  "  I  be- 
lieve "in  addition  to  "I  know."  He  should  not  "  be- 
lieve "  where  he  can  not  trust.  He  should  put  off  the 
livery  of  science  when  he  enters  the  service  of  the  Del- 
phian oracles. 

That  all  the  doctrines  above  mentioned  are  neces- 
sarily included  in  monism,  may  perhaps  be  doubted. 
Monism  would  probably  still  flourish  were  all  these 
theories  disproved;  for  human  philosophies  have  won- 
derful recuperative  power.  Their  basis  is  in  the  struc- 
ture of  the  brain  itself,  and  external  phenomena  are 
only  accessory  to  them. 

If  monism  is  a  purely  philosophic  conception,  it  can 
have  no  necessary  axioms  or  corollaries,  except  such  as 
are  involved  in  its  definition.  These  could  not  be  scien- 
tific in  their  character,  because  they  could  in  no  way 
come  into  relation  with  the  realities  of  human  life.  If, 
however,  monism  be  a  generalization,  resting  in  part  on 
human  experience,  then  it  must  be  tested  by  the  meth- 
ods of  science.  Until  it  is  so  tested,  however  plausible 
it  may  seem,  it  has  no  working  value.  There  is  no  gain 
in  giving  it  belief  or  in  calling  it  truth. 
The  inheritance  gtm  lesg  should  we  stultify  ourselves  by 
of  acquired  .  .  ,  .  .  .  , 

characters  pinning  our  faith  to  its  postulates  as  to 

matters  yet  to  be  decided  by  experiment 
and  to  be  settled  by  human  experiment  only.  Haeckel 
says,  for  example  :  "  The  inheritance  of  characters  ac- 


THE    STABILITY   OF   TRUTH. 


351 


quired  during  the  life  of  the  individual  is  an  indispens- 
able axiom  of  the  monistic  doctrine  of  evolution.  Those 
who  with  Weismann  and  Gallon  deny  this,  entirely  ex- 
clude thereby  the  possibility  of  any  formative  influence 
of  the  outer  world  upon  organic  form."  Here  we  may 
ask  :  Who  knows  that  there  is  any  such  formative  influ- 
ence ?  What  do  we  know  of  this  or  any  other  subject 
beyond  what  in  our  investigations  we  find  to  be  true? 
When  was  monism  a  subject  of  special  revelation,  and 
with  what  credentials  does  it  come,  that  one  of  the 
greatest  controversies  in  modern  science  should  be  set- 
tled by  its  simple  word  ? 

The  great  bulk  of  the  arguments  in  favour  of  the 
heredity  of  acquired  characters,  as  well  as  most  of  those 
in  favour  of  the  opposed  dogma  of  the  unchanged  conti- 
nuity of  the  germ  plasm,  are  based  on  some  supposed 
logical  necessity  of  philosophy.  All  such  arguments  are 
valueless  in  the  light  of  fact.  Desmarest's  suggestion  to 
the  contending  advocates  of  Neptunism  and  Plutonism 
was  "  Go  and  see."  When  they  had  seen  the  action  of 
water  and  the  action  of  heat,  the  contest  was  over,  for 
argument  and  contention  had  vanished  in  the  face  of 
fact.  To  believe  without  foundation  is  to  discredit 
knowledge.  Such  "  confessions  of  faith  "  on  Haeckel's 
part  lead  one  to  doubt  whether  in  his 
The  courage  of  zgal  tQ  believg  he  had  ever  known  wfcat  it 


patience. 

is  to  know.     Greater  than  the  courage  of 

one's  convictions  may  be  the  courage  of  patience  where 
convictions  are  not  yet  attainable. 

"  Science,"  says  Richard  T.  Colburn,  "  does  not  con- 
cern itself  with  teleological  suppositions  ;  that  is  to  say, 
it  is  reluctant  to  resort  to  any  of  them  to  explain  the 
observed  cosmos,  and  prefers  to  listen  in  neutral  atti- 
tude to  the  rival  philosophies  —  theism,  manicheism, 
atheism,  monism,  spiritism,  or  materialism  —  but  it  is  at 
24 


352 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


least  equally  well  equipped  to  pass  judgment  on  such 
speculations  as  their  advocates." 

In  other  words,  if  any  of  these  systems  of  philosophy 
are  to  descend  from  cloudland  to  be  wrought  into  hu- 
man action,  they  must  enter  the  domain  of  science  and 
submit  themselves  to  scientific  tests. 

Again,  if  we  are  to  allow  the  revision  of  the  generali- 
zations of  science  by  the  addition  of  acceptable  but  un- 
verified doctrines,  we  must  allow  the 
right  of  similar  revision  by  rejection. 
ShHosoph  Mr-  Wallace>  for  example,  would  be 

justified  in  adding  to  the  certainties  of 
organic  evolution  his  idea  of  the  special  creation  of  the 
mind  of  man  while  the  body  was  separately  developed 
under  natural  law.  The  old  notion  of  the  separate  ex- 
istence of  the  ego,  which  plays  on  the  nerve  cells  of  the 
brain  as  a  musician  on  the  keys  of  a  piano,  would  still 
linger  in  psychology.  The  astral  body  would  hover  on 
the  verge  of  physiology,  and  a  strong  plea  would  go  up 
for  the  reality  of  Santa  Glaus. 

I  have  a  scientific  friend  who  finds  it  necessary  to 
exclude  by  force  from  his  biological  beliefs  all  that  is 
unpleasant  in  the  theories  of  evolution.  And  he  has  the 
same  right  to  do  this  that  Professor  Haeckel  has  to  insist 
that  any  scientific  beliefs,  for  which  science  has  yet  no 
warrant,  are  a  necessary  part  of  the  orthodoxy  of  science. 

For  Haeckel  is  not  content  to  speak  for  himself, 
asking  tolerance  by  tolerance  toward  others.  His  be- 
lief is  no  idiosyncrasy  of  his  own.  He  speaks  for  all. 
Every  honest,  intelligent,  courageous  scientific  man,  he 
tells  us,  so  far  as  he  is  truthful,  competent,  and  brave, 
shares  the  same  belief.  His  confession  of  faith  is 
nothing  if  not  orthodox.  He  says  : 

"This  monistic  confession  has  the  greater  claim  to 
an  unprejudiced  consideration  in  that  it  is  shared,  I  am 


THE   STABILITY   OF   TRUTH. 


353 


firmly  convinced,  by  at  least  nine  tenths  of  the  men  of 
science  now  living ;  indeed,  I  believe,  by  all  men  of  sci- 
ence in  whom  the  following  four  conditions  are  realized  : 
(i)  Sufficient  acquaintance  with  the  various  departments 
of  natural  science,  and  in  particular  with  the  modern 
doctrine  of  evolution ;  (2)  sufficient  acuteness  and 
clearness  of  judgment  to  draw,  by  induction  and*deduc- 
tion,  the  necessary  logical  consequences  that  flow  from 
such  empirical  knowledge ;  (3)  sufficient  moral  courage 
to  maintain  the  monistic  knowledge  so  gained  against 
the  attacks  of  hostile  dualistic  and  pluralistic  systems; 
and  (4)  sufficient  strength  of  mind  to  free  himself,  by 
sound,  independent  reasoning,  from  dominant  religious 
prejudices,  and  especially  from  those  irrational  dogmas 
which  have  been  firmly  lodged  in  our  minds  from  earli- 
est youth  as  indisputable  revelations." 

Against  such  assumption  I  must  protest.  I  have 
nothing  against  the  doctrines  save  that  they  are  not  yet 
proved  true.  In  themselves,  as  I  have  said,  they  are 
attractive.  One  may  naturally  feel  a  hopeful  interest 
in  wide-reaching  theories  which  seem  plausible,  but  are 
still  unproved  or  unworkable.  This  is,  however,  not 
"belief."  It  is  rather  open-mindedness,  open  to  nega- 
tive evidence  as  well  as  to  positive. 

As  science  goes  wherever  the  facts  lead,  so  "  science 
must  stop  where  the  facts  stop."  It  can  not  add  to  its 

methods  the  running  high  jump,  nor 
Science  stops  lace  thg  diyini  rod  wkh  the  micrQ. 

where  facts  stop. 

scope,  crucible,  and  calculus  among  its 

instruments  of  precision.  Beyond  the  range  of  scientific 
knowledge  extend  the  working  and  the  unworkable 
hypotheses.  Beyond  the  confines  of  all  these  extend 
the  universe  of  the  mind,  the  boundless  realm  which  is 
the  abode  of  philosophy.  None  should  better  realize 
these  distinctions  than  men  of  science. 


354 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


The  primal  motive  of  science  is  to  regulate  the  con- 
duct of  life.  This  is  in  a  sense  its  ultimate  end,  for  it 

is  the  first  and  the  last  function  of  the 
Primal  motive  senseg  &nd  tfae  intellect>  If  science  has 
of  science. 

any  message  to  man,  it  is  expressed  in 

these  words  of    Huxley :   "  There   can    be    no    allevia- 
tion of  the  sufferings  of   mankind   except  in  absolute 
veracity  of   thought  and  action   and  a 
resolute  facing  of  the  world  as  it  is." 
"  Still    men    and   nations   reap   as   they 
have  strewn."     The  history  of  human  thought  is  filled 
with  the  rise  of  philosophic  doctrines,  laws,  and  gen- 
eralizations not  drawn  from  human  experience  and  not 
sanctioned  by  science.     The  attempt  to  use  these  ideas 
as  a  basis  of  human  action  has  been  one  of  the  most 
fruitful  sources  of  human  misery. 

And  now  we  may  turn  for  a  moment  to  the  positive 
side  of  scientific  belief. 

I  was  walking  in  the  garden,  not  long  ago,  with  a 
little  girl,  to  whom  I  told  James  Whitcomb  Riley's  story 
of   the   "  gobelins  that  get  you  if  you 
Philosophic  don't  watch  out  " — a  story  supposed  to 

doubt  and  ,  ••     «  •  •  -i  •> 

common  sense.  be  Peculiarly  attractive  to  children. 
"  But  there  isn't  any  such  thing  as  a 
goblin,"  said  the  practical  little  girl,  "  and  there  isn't 
ever  going  to  be  any  such  thing."  Mindful  of  the  ar- 
guments of  Berkeley  and  Balfour,  I  said  to  her  in  the 
spirit  of  philosophic  doubt,  "  Maybe  there  isn't  any  such 
thing  as  anything,  Barbara  ? "  "  Yes,  there  is,"  she  said, 
and  she  looked  about  her  for  unquestioned  reality; 
"there  is  such  a  thing  as  anything;  there  is  such  a  thing 
as  a  squash !  " 

And  in  this  conclusion  of  the  little  girl  the  reality 
of  the  objective  world,  the  integrity  of  science,  and  the 
sanity  of  man  are  alike  bound  up.  And  for  its  evidence, 


THE   STABILITY   OF   TRUTH. 


355 


if  we  are  not  confined  to  Balfour's  argument  in  a  circle, 
we  must  look  to  the  facts  of  organic  evolution,  of 
which  the  existence  of  man  is  a  part. 

Each  living  being  is  a  link  in  a  continuous  chain  of 
life,  going  back  in  the  past  to  the  unknown  beginnings 
of  life.     Into  this  chain  of  life,  so  far  as 
Each  organism  a  we  know  death  has  never  entered,  be- 
link  in  the  chain  . 

of  life  cause  only  in  life  has  the  ancestor  the 

power  of  casting  off  the  germ  cells  by 
which  life  is  continued.  Each  individual  is  in  a  sense 
the  guardian  of  the  life  chain  in  which  it  forms  a  link. 
Each  link  is  tested  as  to  its  fitness  to  the  conditions 
external  to  itself  in  which  it  carries  on  its  functions. 
Those  creatures  unadapted  to  the  environment,  what- 
ever it  may  be,  are  destroyed,  as  well  as  those  not 
adaptable.  And  this  environment  by  which  each  is 
tested  is  the  objective  universe.  It  is  not  the  world  as 
man  knows  it.  It  is  not  the  world  as  the  creature  may 
imagine  it.  It  is  the  world  as  it  is.  Nature  has  no  par- 
don for  ignorance  or  illusions.  She  is  no  respecter  of 
persons.  Her  laws  and  her  penalties  consider  only  what 
is,  and  have  no  dealings  with  semblances.  By  this  ex- 
perience we  come  to  know  that  reality  exists,  that  there 
is  an  external  world  to  the  demands  of 
which  our  senses,  our  reason,  our  powers 
of  action  are  all  concessions.  The  safety 
of  each  chain  of  life  is  proportioned  to  the  adaptation 
of  its  links  to  these  conditions.  This  adaptation  is  in 
its  essence  obedience.  The  obedience  of  any  creature 
is  conditioned  on  its  response  in  action  to  sensation  or 
knowledge.  Sense-perception  and  intellect  alike  stand 
as  advisers  to  its  power  of  choice.  The  power  of  choice 
involves  the  need  to  choose  right ;  for  wrong  choice 
leads  to  death.  Death  ends  the  chain  of  which  the 
creature  is  a  link,  and  the  life  of  the  world  is  continued 


356  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

by  those  whose  line  of  choice  has  been  safe.  Death  is 
not  the  punishment  of  folly,  but  its  inevitable  result. 
Severity  of  condition  and  stress  of  competition  are  met 
in  life  by  the  survival  of  those  adequate  to  meet  these 
conditions.  Thus  "in  creatures  sore  bestead  by  the 
environment,"  when  instinct  and  impulse  fail,  reason 
rises  to  insure  safety.  At  last  with  civilized  man  rea- 
son comes  to  be  a  chief  element  in  the  guidance  of 
life.  With  greater  power  to  know  and  hence  to  choose 
safely,  greater  complexity  of  conditions  becomes  pos- 
sible, and  the  multifarious  demands  of  modern  civiliza- 
tion find  some  at  least  who  can  meet  them  fairly  well. 
To  such  the  stores  of  human  wisdom  must  be  open. 
To  others,  safety  in  new  conditions  lies  only  in  imi- 
tation. The  multitudes  of  civilized  men,  like  the  mul- 
titudes of  animals,  are  kept  alive  by  the  instinct  of 

conventionality.  The  instinct  to  follow 
Conventionality.  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  . 

those  who    have  passed  over  safely  is 

one  of  the  most  useful  of  all  impulses  to  action.  In 
the  same  connection  we  must  recognise  authority  as  a 

most  important  source  of  knowledge  to 
Authority.  .  . 

the  individual ;  but  its  value  is  propor- 
tioned to  the  ability  of  the  individual  to  use.  the  tests 
wisdom  must  apply  to  the  credentials  of  authority. 

But  instinct,  appetite,  impulse,  conventionality,  and 
respect   for   authority   all   point   backward.     They  are 

the  outcome  of  past  conditions.  "  New 
Instinct  springs  occasions  b  j  duties,"  and  new 

from  past 
conditions.  facts  and  laws  must  be  learned  if  men 

prove  adequate  to  the  life  their  own  in- 
stitutions and  their  own  development  have  brought 
upon  them.  To  the  wise  and  obedient  the  most  complex 
life  brings  no  special  strain  or  discomfort.  It  is  as  easy 
to  do  great  things  as  small,  if  one  only  knows  how.  But 
to  the  ignorant,  weak,  and  perverse  the  growth  of  civili- 


THE   STABILITY   OF   TRUTH. 


357 


zation  becomes  an  engine  of  destruction.  The  freedom 
of  self-realization  involves  the  freedom  of  self-perdition. 

Hence  appears  the  often-discussed  rela- 
Intellect  points  Uon  Qf  „  s  and  poverty  "  in  social 

forward.  * 

development,  Hence  it  comes  that  civ- 
ilization, of  which  the  essence  is  mutual  help  or  altru- 
ism, seems  to  become  one  vast  instrument  for  the  kill- 
ing of  fools.  In  the  specialization  of  life  conditions  are 
constantly  changing.  Every  age  is  an  age  of  transi- 
tion, and  transition  brings  unrest  because  it  impairs  the 
value  of  conventionality.  With  the  lowest  forms  of  life 
there  is  no  safety  save  in  absolute  obedience  to  the  laws 
of  the  world  around  them.  This  obedience  becomes 
automatic  and  hereditary,  because  the  disobedient  leave 
no  chain  of  descent.  All  instincts,  appetites,  impulses 
to  action,  even  certain  forms  of  illusions,  point  toward 
such  obedience.  Whether  we  regard  these  phenomena 
as  variations  selected  because  useful,  or  as  inherited 
habits,  their  relation  is  the  same.  They  survive  as 
guarantees  of  future  obedience  because  they  have  en- 
forced obedience  in  the  past.  With  the  most  enlightened 
man,  the  same  necessity  for  obedience  exists,  and  the 
instincts,  appetites,  and  impulses  of  the  lower  animals 
remain  in  him,  or  disappear  only  as  reason  is  adequate 
to  take  their  place.  And,  in  any  case,  there  is  no  alle- 
viation for  the  woes  of  life  "  save  the  absolute  veracity 
of  action,  the  resolute  facing  of  the  world  as  it  is." 

The  intense  practicality  of  all  this  must  be  recog- 
nised.    The  truths  of  science  are  approximate,  not  ab- 
solute.    They  must  be  stated  in  terms 
ractica  ity  o         o^   human  consciousness,  and  they  can 
sensations.  ,.          .  , 

never  be  dissociated  from  possible  human 

action.  Knowledge  which  can  only  accumulate,  without 
being  woven  into  conduct,  has  never  been  a  boon  to  its 
possessor.  As  food  must  be  formed  into  tissues,  so  must 


358  FOOT-NOTES   TO  EVOLUTION. 

perception  pass  over  into  action.  In  the  lower  forms  we 
have  the  devices,  chiefly  automatic,  by  which  sensation 
transmitted  to  the  sensorium  reappears  as  motion.  In 
like  manner  we  find  in  man,  besides  these  reflex  trans- 
fers and  the  reflex  connections  formed  by  habit,  that 
science  becomes  changed  to  art  and  knowledge  to 
power.  Power  and  effectiveness  are  conditioned  on  ac- 
curacy. Every  failure  in  the  sense  organs,  every  form 
of  deterioration  of  the  nerves,  shows  itself  in  reduction 
of  power.  Reduced  effectiveness  manifests  itself  through 
the  processes  of  natural  selection  as  lessened  safety  of 
life.  Thus  the  degeneration  of  the  nervous  system 
through  excesses,  through  precocious  activity,  or  through 
the  effect  of  stimulants,  shows  itself  in  untrustworthy 
perceptions,  in  uncontrolled  muscles,  and  in  general  in- 
security. Incidentally  all  these  are  recorded  by  fall  in 
social  standing.  Similar  failure  follows  from  any  cause 
impairing  the  recognition  of  the  reality  of  external 
things.  The  sober  mind  is  necessary  to  secure  life.  In 

general  all  civilized  men  are  well  born. 
The  sober  Th        c()me    Qf  d    stock>       For    thg 

mind. 

lineage  of  perversity,  insanity,  and  even 

stupidity,  is  never  a  long  one.  The  perverse,  insane, 
and  the  stupid  live  through  the  tolerance  of  others. 
They  can  not  maintain  themselves,  and  in  spite  of  char- 
ity and  the  sense  of  conventionality,  the  mortality  caused 
by  the  fool-killer  is  something  enormous.  It  is  an  essen- 
tial element  in  race  progress.  It  grows  with  increased 
civilization,  because  of  increasing  complexity  of  condi- 
tion. It  is  the  chief  offset  for  the  systematic  life-saving 
which  science  makes  possible. 

The  recent  "  recrudescence  of  superstition,"  a  strik- 
ing accompaniment  of  an  age  of  science,  is  in  a  sense  de- 
pendent on  science.  Science  has  made  it  possible.  The 
traditions  of  science  are  so  diffused  in  the  community 


THE   STABILITY   OF   TRUTH.  359 

at  large  that  fools  find  it  safe  to  defy  them.  Those  who 
take  dreams  for  realities ;  those  whose  memory  impres- 
sions and  motor  dreams  are  uncontrolled  through  de- 
fective will;  those  who  mistake  subjective  sensations 
produced  by  disease  or  disorder  for  ob- 
The  recrudes-  jective  conditions — all  these  sooner  or 

later  drop  out  of  existence,  taking  with 
superstition. 

them  the  whole  line  of  their  possible  suc- 
cessors. The  condition  of  mind  which  is  favourable  to 
mysticism,  superstition,  and  reverie,  is  unfavorable  to 
life,  and  the  continuance  of  such  condition  leads  to 
death.  On  the  billboard  across  the  street  (in  Oakland, 
California)  I  see  the  advertisement  of  a  lecture  on 
"  The  Ethical  Value  of  Living  in  Two  Worlds  at  Once." 
Whoever  thus  lives  in  two  worlds  is  certain  soon  to 
prove  inadequate  for  either. 

If  all  men  sought  healing  from  the  blessed   handker- 
chief of  the  lunatic,  or  from  contact  with  old  bones  or 

old  clothes;  if  all  physicians  used  "  re- 
Life  based  on  yealed  remedies>"  or  the  remedies  "  Na- 

dreams  and  „  . 

illusions  finds     for  each  disease  ;  if  all  busi- 

ness were  conducted  by  faith ;  if  all 
supposed  "  natural  rights  "  of  man  were  recognised  in 
legislation,  the  insecurity  of  these  beliefs  would  speedily 
appear.  Not  only  civilization  but  civilized  man  himself 
would  vanish  from  the  earth.  The  safe  shelter  of  the 
cave  and  hollow  tree  would  be  the  cradle  of  the  "new 
man"  and  the  "new  woman."  The  long  and  bloody 
road  of  progress  through  fool-killing  would  for  centu- 
ries be  traversed  again.  That  is  strong  which  endures. 
Might  does  not  make  right,  but  that  which  is  right  will 
justify  itself  by  becoming  might.  What  we  call  social 
virtues  are  the  elements  of  race  stability. 

So  closely  is  knowledge  linked  to  action,  that  in  gen- 
eral among  animals  and  men  sensation  is  absent  or  not 


360  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

trustworthy  when  it  can  not  result  in  action.  Objects 
too  small  to  be  touched  are  invisible  to  the  eye.  Objects 
beyond  our  reach,  as  the  stars  or  the  clouds,  are  not 
truthfully  pictured.  Accuracy  of  percep- 
Sensation  truth-  tion  grows  less  as  the  square  of  the  dis- 
ful  in  the  degree  Unce  increases  It  is  a  recognised  law 
that  action  is 

possible  °    psychology  that  only  medium  varia- 

tions and  differences  are  correctly  esti- 
mated. The  senses  deal  correctly  only  with  the  near, 
the  mind  only  with  the  common.  The  unfamiliar  lends 
itself  readily  to  illusions.  The  familiar  is  recognised 
chiefly  by  breaks  in  continuity.  The  real  forces  of 
Nature  are  hidden  by  their  grandeur,  by  their  duration. 
Men  see  the  waves  on  the  surface  of  the  sea,  but  not  the 
mighty  tides  that  move  beneath  it.  Again,  the  senses 
are  less  acute  than  the  mechanism  of  sense  organs  would 
make  possible.  This  is  shown  through  occasional  cases 
of  hyperaesthesia  or  ultra-sensitiveness.  This  occurs  in 
abnormal  individuals  or  in  diseased  conditions.  It  oc- 
curs normally  in  creatures  whose  lives  in  some  sense 
depend  on  it.  Thus  some  of  the  most  remarkable  exhibi- 
tions of  "mind  reading"  may  be  paralleled  by  retriever 
dogs,  whose  reason  for  existence  is  found  in  the  hyper- 
aesthesia of  the  sense  of  smell.  Hyperaesthesia  of  more 
than  one  of  the  senses  would  be  to  most  animals  a 
source  of  confusion  and  danger  rather  than  of  safety. 
The  high  development  of  the  brain  in  man  in  large  de- 
gree takes  the  place  of  acuteness  of  special  senses.  It 
is  part  of  the  function  of  the  will  to  regulate  the  senses 
and  to  suppress  those  impressions  which  should  not  lead 
to  action. 

In  his  perception  of  external  relations  man  is  aided 
by  the  devices  of  science,  which  may  be  taken  up  or  laid 
down  at  will.  By  means  of  instruments  of  precision  any 
of  the  senses  may  be  extended  to  an  enormous  degree, 


THE   STABILITY   OF   TRUTH.  361 

and  at  the  same  time  the  personal  equation  or  individual 

source  of  error  is  largely  eliminated.    The  use  of  instru- 
ments of  precision  is  the  special  charac- 

Hyperaesthesia      teristic  of  the  advance  of  science.     No 

of  science.  .  .... 

instrument  of  precision  can  give  us  the 

ultimate  essence  of  any  part  of  the  universe.  No  scien- 
tific experiment  can  do  away  with  the  measure  of  human 
experience  as  the  basis  of  intelligibility.  At  the  same 
time  we  can  throw  large  illuminations  into  "the  dimly 
lighted  room  "  in  which,  according  to  Balfour,  the  phe- 
nomena of  consciousness  takes  place.  By  the  simple 
process  of  photography,  for  example,  we  may  reproduce 
the  objects  of  our  environment.  That  such  pictures  do 
express  phases  of  reality  admits  of  no  doubt ;  for  in  the 
photographic  camera,  all  personal  equation  is  eliminated. 
As  to  form  of  outline  and  reflection  of  light,  "  the  sun 
paints  true,"  and  the  paintings  thus  made  by  means  of 
the  action  of  non-living  matter  produce  on  our  senses 
impressions  coinciding  with  those  of  the  outside  world 
itself. 

How  do  we  know  that  this  is  truth  ?  Because  belief 
in  it  adds  to  the  safety  of  life ;  we  can  trust  our  lives  to 

it.  If  it  were  an  illusion  it  would  kill, 
Trust  in  reality  because  action  based  on  iHusion  leads  to 
makes  life  safe. 

death. 

One  can  trust  his  life,  for  example,  to  the  message 
sent  on  a  telegraph  wire.  All  who  travel  by  rail  do  this 
daily.  One  can  trust  his  life  to  the  reading  of  a  ther- 
mometer. The  chemist's  tests  will  select  for  us  foods 
among  poisons.  We  may  trust  these  tests  absolutely. 
We  may  safely  and  sometimes  wisely  take  poisons  into 
our  bodies  if  we  know  what  we  are  doing.  By  the  ad- 
vice of  a  physician,  trusting  in  the  weigher's  instrument 
of  precision,  poisons  may  do  no  harm.  One  grain  of 
strychnine  may  be  an  aid  to  vital  processes ;  a  dozen 


362  FOOT-NOTES  TO  EVOLUTION. 

may  mean  instant  cessation  of  these  processes.  The 
balance  advises  us  as  to  all  this.  All  these  instruments 
of  precision  belong  to  science.  They  are  examples 
taken  from  thousands  of  the  methods  of  "  organized 
common  sense."  By  means  of  common  sense,  organized 
and  unorganized,  all  creatures  that  can  move  are  en- 
abled to  move  safely.  The  security  of  human  life  in  its 
relations  to  environment  is  a  sufficient  answer  to  the 
"  philosophic  doubt  "  of  Berkeley  and  Balfour  as  to  the 
existence  of  external  Nature ;  for  if  all  phenomena  were 
within  the  mind,  no  one  of  them  could  be  more  dangerous 
than  another.  A  dream  of  murder  is  no  more  danger- 
ous than  a  dream  of  a  "  pink  tea,"  so  long  as  its  action 
is  confined  to  the  limits  of  the  dream.  But  the  relation 
of  life  to  environment  is  inseparable  and  inexorable. 
Cause  and  effect  are  perfectly  linked.  This  is  a  world 
of  absolute  verity,  and  its  demand  is  absolute  obedi- 
ence. Life  without  concessions  or  conditions  is  the 
philosopher's  dream. 

What  we  know  as  pain  is  the  necessary  danger  sig- 
nal.     Without    pain,    life    conditioned    by   environment 
would   be  impossible.      Organic   beings 
need  such  stimulus  to  veracity.     Those 
dangers  which  are  painless  are  the  hard- 
est to  avoid ;  the  diseases  which  are  painless  are  the 
most  difficult  to  cure. 

In  this  relation  must  science  recognise  the  value  of 
ideals  ?     The  ideal  in  the  mind  tends  always  to  go  over 

into  action.     The  noble  ideal  discloses 
Value  of  ideals.      .....  ,,,•/.         T     .  /•    , 

itself  in  a  noble  life.     It  is  part  of  the 

wisdom  of  each  generation,  its  science  as  well  as  its  reli- 
gion, to  form  the  ideals  of  the  next.  History  is  fore- 
shadowed in  these  ideals  before  it  is  enacted  on  the 
stage  of  life.  An  ideal  is  not  a  dream.  A  dream  is 
fleeting.  An  ideal  has  the  will  behind  it.  Its  essential 


THE   STABILITY   OF   TRUTH.  363 

is  its  persistence.  The  persistence  of  a  lofty  ideal  is  the 
central  axis  of  the  life  worth  living. 

But  if  the  strong  man  is  to  cast  off  conventionality 
and  suggestion  and  authority  as  guides  to  conduct,  so 
must  he  guard  himself  against  hereditary  impulses. 
Conventionality  and  authority  hold  in  check  the  bodily 
impulses  which  had  their  origin  in  wild  and  rude  condi- 
tions. To  escape  from  human  control  only  to  be  ruled 
by  the  animal  passions  is  not  liberty.  That  "  freedom 
which  is  thraldom  to  sin  "  brings  destruction,  for  the 
unchecked  gratification  of  bodily  impulses  carries  with 
it  in  civilization  perils  unknown  to  primitive  man.  To 
be  free  from  the  control  of  others  one  should  be  wise 
enough  to  control  himself,  and  wisdom  is  but  another 
name  for  science. 

An  old  parable  of  the  conduct  of  life  shows  man  in 

a  light  skiff  in  a  tortuous  channel  beset  with  rocks, 

borne   by  a   falling  current   to    an   un- 

The  course  known   sea.      He   is  kept  alert   by  the 

of  life.  J 

dangers  of  his  situation.     As  his  boat 

bumps  against  the  rocks  he  must  bestir  himself.  If 
this  contact  were  not  painful  he  would  not  heed  it. 
If  it  were  not  destructive  he  would  not  need  to  heed  it. 
Had  he  no  power  to  act,  he  could  not  heed  it  if  he 
would.  But  with  sensation,  will,  freedom  to  act,  nar- 
row though  the  limits  of  freedom  be,  his  safety  rests  in 
some  degree  in  his  own  hands.  That  he  has  thus  far 
steered  his  course  fairly  well  is  shown  by  the  fact  that 
he  is  still  above  board.  He  may  choose  his  course  for 
himself — not  an  easy  thing  to  do,  unless  he  scan  most 
carefully  the  nature  of  rocks  and  waves,  and  weighs 
carefully  his  control  of  the  boat  itself.  He  may  fol- 
low the  course  of  others  with  some  degree  of  the  safety 
they  have  attained.  He  may  follow  his  own  impulses, 
in  man's  case  inherited  from  those  who  found  them  safe 


364  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

guides  to  action.  But  in  new  conditions  neither  con- 
ventionality nor  impulse  nor  desire  will  suffice.  He 
must  know  what  is  about  him  in  order  that  he  may  know 
what  he  is  doing.  He  must  know  what  he  is  doing  in 
order  to  do  anything  effectively.  Ignorant  action  is 
more  dangerous  than  no  action  at  all.  The  "  sealed 
orders  "  under  which  live  the  lower  animals  and  our 
"  brother  organisms  the  plants  "  are  in  a  measure  inade- 
quate for  man.  With  the  power  of  movement  and  the 
"  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,"  he  has  no  choice  but  to 
accept  the  conditions.  He  must  shape 
his  own  life.  He  must  mould  his  ideals 
into  actuality.  And  thus  it  comes  that 
there  is  "  no  alleviation  for  the  sufferings  of  man  ex- 
cept through  absolute  veracity  of  thought  and  action, 
and  the  resolute  facing  of  the  world  as  it  is." 

And  thus  it  comes  also  that  it  is  well  for  man  not 

"  to  pretend  to  know  or  to  believe  what  he  really  does 

not  know  or  believe."     We  may  play  at 

Subordination        philosophy,  if  we  have  pleasure  in  doing 

of  impulses.  *     "         _     ,    . 

so.     We  may  find   intellectual  strength 

through  exercise  of  the  mind,  even  on  its  own  products. 
But  we  must  guide  our  lives  by  science.  The  appetites, 
impulses,  passions,  illusions,  if  you  choose,  which  have 
proved  safe  in  the  past  development  of  life,  science 
would  not  destroy.  But  they  must  be  subordinate  to 
the  will  and  the  intellect.  And  this  subordination  of 
the  lower  to  the  higher  motives  in  life  is  the  vital  fact 
of  human  evolution,  as  it  has  been  the  ideal  of  those 
who  in  the  name  of  religion  have  striven  worthily  for 
man's  spiritual  advancement. 

As  knowledge  is  in  its  essence  only  a  guide  to  ac- 
tion, and  as  knowledge,  being  human,  can  be  approxi- 
mate only,  not  reality,  but  a  movement  toward  reality, 
we  are  brought  to  the  famous  words  of  Lessing : 


THE   STABILITY   OF   TRUTH.  365 

"  It  is  not  the  truth  in  man's  possession  that  makes 
the  worth  of  man.     Possession  makes  him  selfish,  lazy, 
proud.     Not  through  possession,  but  through  long  striv- 
ing,  comes   the   ever-growing  strength. 

If  G°d  should  hold  in  his  riSht  hand  a11 
truth,  and  in  his  left  hand  only  the  cease- 
less struggle  to  reach  after  truth,  and  he  should  say  to 
me,  Choose,  I  would  fall  in  humbleness  before  his  left 
hand,  and  say : 

"  '  Father,  give  ;  the  perfect  truth  is  but  for  thee  alone.'  " 


XV. 
THE   STRUGGLE   FOR   REALITIES. 

IT  is  said  that  every  tie  in  the  Panama  Railway  cost 
a  man  his  life.  Whether  this  be  true  or  not,  it  may 
serve  as  an  illustration  of  the  progress 
t"ruthPri€e  of  human  knowledge.  Every  step  in  the 

advance  of  science  has  cost  the  life  of  a 
man.  And  this  price  of  truth  has  been  paid  in  two  dif- 
ferent ways.  It  may  take  a  lifetime  of  the  severest 
labour  to  find  out  a  new  fact.  No  truth  comes  to  man 
unless  he  asks  for  it;  and  it  takes  years  of  patience  and 
devotion  to  ask  of  Nature  even  one  new  question.  He 
is  already  a  master  in  science  who  can  suggest  a  new 
experiment. 

In  the  second  place,  the  truth-seeker  has  had  to 
struggle  for  his  physical  life.  Each  acquisition  of 
truth  has  been  resisted  by  the  full  force  of  the  inertia 
of  satisfaction  with  preconceived  ideas.  Just  as  a  new 
thought  comes  to  us  with  a  shock  which  rouses  the  re- 
sistance of  our  personal  conservatism,  so  a  new  idea  is 
met  and  repelled  by  the  conservatism  of  society. 

And  as  each  individual  in  his  own  secret  heart  be- 
lieves himself  in  some  degree  the  subject  of  the  favour 

of  the  mysterious  unseen  powers,  so 
The  mystic  doeg  sodet  in  all  the  ages  find  a  mys. 

sanction.  . 

tic  or  divine  warrant  for  its  own  attitude 

toward  life  or  action,  whatever  that  may  be. 
366 


THE   STRUGGLE   FOR   REALITIES.  367 

The  institutions  that  survive  spring  out  of  man's 
need  for  them.  The  existence  of  the  Church  has  divine 
warrant  in  this.  Should  every  fragment  of  the  historic 
churches  disappear,  every  memory,  every  ceremony, 
every  trace  of  creed  or  form,  the  Church  would  rise 
again,  renewed  as  to  all  its  essentials ;  and  with  each 
variant  race  of  man  there  would  be  a  corresponding 
variation  in  the  form  of  the  Church.  You  could  not 
make  Buddhists  out  of  the  Puritans,  nor  transplant  the 
New  England  Sabbath  to  the  sunny  isles  of  Greece. 
Monarchy,  in  turn,  exists  by  the  same  divine  right;  and 
when  it  fails,  the  same  divinity  that  hedged  the  king  is 
invoked  to  sustain  the  rights  of  the  people.  Once  the 
king  was  God's  anointed,  as  he  still  is  in  many  lands. 
But  when  "  God  said, '  I  am  tired  of  kings ;  I  suffer  them 
no  more,' "  the  self-rule  of  the  people  acquired  the  same 
divine  right — no  less,  no  more,  for  the  warrant  rests  in 
the  heart  of  man.  We  know  God's  purposes  only  by 
what  he  lets  man  do.  We  know  what  he  wills  only  by 
what  he  permits.  That  which  exists  in  the  nature  of 
things  men  have  worshipped  as  divine,  especially  if  its 
relations  have  been  dimly  understood.  Thus  the  strug- 
gle of  science  with  prejudice  and  tradition  has  become  a 
warfare  with  religion ;  for  men  have  always  sought  to 
strengthen  their  traditional  opinions  by  giving  them  a 
religious  sanction. 

The  history  of  the  progress  of  science  has  been  the 

record  of  the  physical  resistance  of  organized  society. 

"  By  the  light  of  burning  heretics  Christ's 

The  struggle         bleeding  feet  j  track."    He  who  sees  that 

against  tradition. 

the  world  does  move  is  burned  at  the 

stake,  that  other  men  may  be  convinced  that  it  does  not. 
He  who  is  sure  that  the  rocks  were  once  molten,  finds 
the  force  of  social  pressure  between  him  and  his  studies. 
He  who  would  give  the  sacred  books  of  our  civilization 
25 


368  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

the  faithful  scrutiny  their  vast  importance  deserves, 
finds  the  doors  of  libraries  and  universities  closed  to  his 
research.  He  who  has  seen  the  relation  of  man  to  his 
brother  animals,  finds  the  air  filled  with  the  vain  chatter 
of  those  to  whom  whatever  is  natural  seems  only  pro- 
fane. "  Extinguished  theologians,"  Huxley  tells  us, 
"  lie  about  the  cradle  of  every  science,  as  the  strangled 
snakes  beside  that  of  the  infant  Hercules." 

But  this,  again,  is  not  the  whole  story.     This  fact  is 
only  an  incident  in  human  development.    Not  only  theo- 
logians lie   strangled  about  the  giant's 
The  struggle         cradie  but  learned  men  of  all  classes  and 
against  learning.  .  .  . 

conditions.      Learning  and  wisdom  are 

not  identical ;  they  are  not  always  on  speaking  terms. 
Learning  looks  backward  to  the  past.  The  word  "  learn  " 
involves  the  existence  of  some  man  as  teacher.  Wis- 
dom looks  forward  to  the  future.  In  so  far  as  science  is 
genuine,  it  is  of  the  nature  of  wisdom.  "  To  come  in 
when  it  rains  "  is  the  beginning  of  the  science  of  mete- 
orology. "The  soul  that  sinneth,  it  shall  die,"  is  the 
practical  basis  of  personal  ethics.  To  be  wise  is  to  be 
ready  to  act ;  but  learning  in  all  the  ages  has  con- 
demned wisdom  and  despised  action. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  warfare  of  science  is  not 
primarily,  as  Draper  has  called  it,  a  conflict  with  re- 
ligion,  nor    even,    as    President    White 
The  struggle  in      ^^    haye    .  struggle   wjth    "  dog- 

the  human  mind. 

matic  theology.       It  is  all  of  these,  but 

it  is  more  than  these — a  conflict  of  tendencies  in  the 
human  mind  which  has  worked  itself  out  into  history. 
The  great  movements  of  history  in  general  are  written 
in  the  human  mind  before  they  are  worked  out  on  the 
great  stage  of  the  world.  When  history  is  enacted,  we 
perform  deeds  and  recite  sentences  "  written  for  us  gen- 
erations before  we  were  born."  "  He  hath  his  exits  and 


THE   STRUGGLE   FOR    REALITIES. 


369 


his  entrances."  He  is  a  rare  man  who  can  add  a  new 
meaning  to  his  lines  or  give  a  better  cue  to  him  that 
follows. 

The  nervous  system  of  man  and  animals  is  primarily 
a  device  for  making  locomotion  safe.     The  mind — using 
the  word  in  the  broadest  sense — is  a  col- 
Nature  of  the        lective  term  for  the  operations  of  the 

mind.  .     * 

nervous  system.  It  is  not  an  entity  ex- 
isting apart  from  organization.  To  it  consciousness  is 
related  much  as  the  flame  is  to  fire.  The  mind  is  in 
operation  whether  we  realize  it  or  not.  The  reflex  ac- 
tion of  the  nerve  centre  is  the  type  of  all  mind  pro- 
cesses. Through  the  sensory  nerves,  impressions  of  the 
external  world  are  received  by  the  brain  or  central  gan- 
glion. The  brain  has  no  source  of  knowledge  other 
than  through  sensation.  All  human  knowledge  comes 
through  human  experience.  The  primal  function  of  the 
brain,  sitting  in  darkness,  is  to  convert  sensory  impres- 
sions into  impulses  of  action.  To  this  end  are  devel- 
oped the  motor  nerves  which  pass  from  the  nerve  cen- 
tre outward  to  the  muscles.  The  sensory  organs  are 
the  brain's  sole  teacher ;  the  muscles  are  its  only  serv- 
ants. The  essence  of  the  intellect,  as  distinguished 
from  reflex  or  instinctive  action,  is  the  choice  among 
different  motor  responses  to  the  stimulus  of  external 
conditions.  As  the  conditions  of  life  grow  more  com- 
plicated, the  possible  ways  in  which  sensation  may  pass 
over  into  action  grow  more  numerous.  It  is  the  func- 
tion of  the  intellect  to  consider  these,  and  of  the  will  to 
choose.  The  growth  of  the  intellect  causes  and  permits 
complexity  of  life.  Safety  in  life  depends  upon  choos- 
ing the  right  response.  Wrong  choice  leads  to  failure 
and  death.  The  power  of  choice  implies  the  necessity 
of  choosing  right. 

From  this,  by  the  process  of  natural  selection,  arises 


370 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


the  intense  practicality  of  the  senses  and  the  intellect. 
They  tell  us  the  truth  as  to  external  things,  in  so  far  as 
this  truth  has  been  essential  to  our  ancestors.  Those  of 
our  predecessors  who  did  not  "  see  things 

f       as  they  really  are'"  t0  the  de£ree  that 
their  life  processes  demanded,  have  died, 

leaving  no  descendants.  Our  own  ancestors,  through 
all  the  generations,  have  been  creatures  of  adequate  sen- 
sations and  of  adequate  power  of  thought.  Were  it  not 
so,  they  would  have  been  unable  to  cope  with  their  en- 
vironment. In  other  words,  the  sensations  their  brains 
translated  into  action  were  truthful  enough  to  make  ac- 
tion safe.  That  our  ordinary  sensations  and  our  induc- 
tions from  them  are  truthful  so  far  as  they  go,  is  proved 
by  the  fact  that  we  have  safely  trusted  them.  This  is 
shown  also  by  the  instruments  of  precision  which  are 
the  tools  of  science.  That  instruments  of  precision  like- 
wise tell  the  truth,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  we  can 
trust  our  lives  to  them.  That  they  are  more  trust- 
worthy than  the  unaided  senses,  is  shown  by  their  greater 
safety. 

But  while  our  senses  tell  the  truth  as  to  familiar 
things,  as  rocks  and  trees,  foods  and  shelter,  friends  and 
enemies,  they  do  not  tell  the  whole  truth.  They  go 
only  as  far  as  the  demands  of  the  environment  have 
compelled  them  to  go.  Chemical  composition  they  do 
not  show.  Objects  too  small  to  be  handled  are  too 
small  to  be  seen.  Bodies  too  distant  to  be  reached  are 
never  correctly  apprehended.  Accuracy  of  sense  grows 
less  as  the  square  of  the  distance  increases  ;  and  sun 
and  stars,  clouds  and  sky,  are  in  fact  very  different  from 
what  they  seem. 

In  matters  not  vital  to  action  exact  knowledge  loses 
its  importance.  It  is  perfectly  safe,  in  the  ordinary 
affairs  of  life,  to  believe  in  witches  and  incantations, 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR   REALITIES. 


371 


imps  and  elves,  astral  bodies  and  odic  forces.  It  is 
quite  as  consistent  with  ordinary  virtue  and  effective- 
ness to  accept  these  as  objective  realities,  as  it  is  to 
have  the  vague  faith  in  microbes  and  molecules,  mahat- 
mas  and  protoplasm,  in  protective  tariffs  and  mani- 
fest destiny,  which  form  part  of  the  mental  outfit  of 
the  man  of  our  day.  Unless  these  ideas  are  brought 
into  terms  of  personal  experience,  they  can  not  be 
wrought  into  action.  If  they  are  so  brought,  truth  is 
separated  from  falsehood,  and  the  vague  conceptions 
most  men  possess  are  found  to  diverge  very  widely  from 
the  actual  facts  in  Nature.  Thus,  when  one  comes  to 
handle  microbes,  they  become  as  real  as  nutmegs  or 
oranges,  and  as  capable  of  being  manipulated.  But  the 
astral  body  exists  only  to  those  who  use  it  as  a  cover 
for  real  ignorance,  and  the  ghosts  vanish  when  we  turn 
on  the  electric  light. 

Other  mental  processes  arise  to  produce  confusion. 
Memory  pictures  readily  blend  themselves  with  realities. 

The  nervous  system  of  the  one  individu- 
Suggestion  and  &{  ig  easil  affected  b  the  conditions  ex_ 
conventionality.  ..." 

istmg  in  another.     Men  are  gregarious 

creatures,  and  their  speech  gives  them  the  power  to  add 
to  their  own  ideas  and  experiences  the  ideas  and  experi- 
ences of  others.  Thus,  many  actions  are  based  not  on 
our  own  sensations,  but  on  the  suggestions  of  others. 
Openness  to  suggestion  and  the  instinct  of  convention- 
ality are  elements  of  great  importance  in  insuring  the 
safety  of  gregarious  creatures. 

With  all  this,  the  growth  of  each  individual  must  be 
determined  by  his  own  experience.  About  the  sense- 
impressions  formed  in  my  own  brain  I  must  build  up  my 
own  universe.  Thus  it  comes  that  each  accretion  of 
human  knowledge  must  be  thrown  into  terms  of  our  pre- 
vious experience.  Stated  in  these  terms,  it  is  always 


372 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


imperfectly  stated.  By  processes  of  suggestion  and 
conventionality  the  ideas  of  the  individual  become  as- 
similated to  those  of  the  multitude.  Thus  tradition  and 
myths  arise  to  account  for  phenomena  not  clearly  re- 
lated to  the  ordinary  experiences  of  life.  And  the  un- 
known in  all  mythology  is  ascribed  not  to  natural  forces, 
but  to  the  action  of  the  power  that  transcends  Nature. 

It  has  been  evident  to  man  in  all  ages  that  there  lie 
about  him  forces  stronger  than  he,  invisible  and  intan- 
gible, inscrutable  as  to  their  real  nature, 
The  forces  out-       but  nQne  tfae   ^  nt       He  cafl  nQt 

side  ourselves. 

easily  trace  cause  and  effect  in  dealing 

with  these  forces,  and  it  is  natural  that  he  should  doubt 
the  existence  of  causation  in  the  phenomena  they  pro- 
duce. As  the  human  will  seems  capricious  because  the 
springs  of  volition  are  hidden  from  our  observation, 
so  to  the  unknown  will  that  limits  our  own  has  been 
ascribed  an  infinite  caprice.  All  races  of  men  capable 
of  continued  thought  have  come  to  believe  in  the  exist- 
ence of  something  outside  themselves,  whose  power  is 
without  human  limitations.  Through  the  imagination 
of  great  poets  these  forces  become  personified.  The  ex- 
istence of  power  seems  to  demand  a  will.  The  power 
is  infinitely  greater  than  ours,  the  sources  of  action  in- 
scrutable ;  hence  man  has  conceived  the  unknown  First 
Cause  as  an  infinite  and  unconditioned  man.  Anthropo- 
morphism in  some  degree  is  inevitable,  because  each 
man  must  think  in  terms  of  his  own  experience.  Into 
his  own  universe  all  that  he  knows  must  come. 

Recognition  of  the  hidden  but  gigantic  forces  in  Na- 
ture leads  men  to  fear  them  and  to  worship  them.  To 
think  of  them,  either  in  fear  or  worship,  is  to  give  them 
human  forms.  To  grant  them  the  form  of  man  is  to 
give  them  "a  local  habitation  and  a  name."  As  man  is 
a  social  animal,  even  in  his  hopes  and  fears,  these  feel- 


THE   STRUGGLE    FOR   REALITIES. 


373 


ings  have  given  rise  to  institutions.  An  institution  im- 
plies a  division  of  labour;  so  in  every  age  and  in  every 
race  men  have  been  chosen  and  set  apart 
Fear  and  worship  ag  representatives  of  these  hidden  forces 
of  the  unseen  devoted  to  their  propitiation.  In 

powers. 

every  nation  there  are  men  who  are  com- 
missioned to  speak  in  the  name  of  each  god  that  is  wor- 
shipped or  each  demon  that  the  people  dread. 

The  existence  of  each  cult  of  priests  is  bound  up  in 
the  perpetuation  of  the  mysteries  and  traditions  they 
visibly  represent.  It  is  the  nature  of  men  to  magnify 
their  own  calling.  These  traditions  are  associated  with 
other  traditions  of  other  powers,  with  other  conventional 
explanations  of  uncomprehended  phenomena.  While 
human  theories  of  the  earth,  the  stars,  and  the  clouds, 
of  earthquakes,  storms,  comets,  and  disease,  have  no 
direct  relation  to  the  feeling  of  worship,  yet  of  necessity 
they  become  entangled  with  it.  The  uncomprehended, 
the  unfamiliar,  and  the  supernatural  are  one  and  the 
same  thing  in  the  mind  of  man.  History  shows  that  the 
human  mind  can  not  separate  one  set  of  traditional 
prejudices  from  another. 

We  come  to  attach  sacredness  to  the  ideas  acquired 

in  our  youth,  whether  derived  from  our  own  experience 

or   from  the  teachings  of   our  fathers. 

The  science  of       TQ  those  courses  of  actjon  approved  by 

our  childhood.  .    J 

us  as  right  we  attach  a  mystic  sanction 

as  our  best  reason  for  following  them.  And  not  only  to 
the  acts  of  virtue  approved  by  the  ethical  wisdom  of  all 
ages,  but  to  the  most  unimportant  rites  and  ceremonies 
we  attribute  the  same  divine  sanction.  New  ideas,  with- 
out the  sanction  of  tradition,  whatever  the  nature  of 
their  source,  must  struggle  for  acceptance.  To  the  sci- 
entific notions  of  our  childhood  we  cling  with  special 
persistence,  because  they  are  associated  with  our  con- 


374  FOOT-NOTES  TO  EVOLUTION. 

captions  of  right-doing  and  of  the  motives  which  con- 
trol it.  Both  are  part  of  the  mental  universe  we  built 
around  us  in  our  youth,  and  one  in  which  we  would 
not  willingly  make  changes  or  extensions. 

It  is  the  work  of  science  to  find  in  some  degree  the 
real  nature  of  the  universe.  Its  function  is  to  eliminate, 
as  far  as  may  be,  the  human  equation  in  every  state- 
ment. By  methods  of  precision  of  thought  and  instru- 
ments of  precision  of  observation  science  seeks  to 
make  our  knowledge  of  the  small,  the  distant,  the  invisi- 
ble, the  mysterious,  as  accurate  as  our  knowledge  of 
the  common  things  with  which  man  has  dealt  for  ages. 
It  seeks  to  make  our  knowledge  of  common  things  ac- 
curate and  precise,  that  this  accuracy  and  precision  may 
be  translated  into  action.  For  the  ultimate  end  of  sci- 
ence, as  well  as  its  initial  impulse,  is  the  regulation  of 
human  conduct.  Seeing  true  means  thinking  right. 
Right  thinking  means  right  action.  To  bring  about 
right  action  is  the  end  of  science.  Greater  precision  of 
thought  and  action  makes  higher  civilization  possible. 
Lack  of  precision  in  action  is  the  great  cause  of  human 
misery,  for  misery  is  Nature's  protest  against  the  results 
of  wrong  conduct.  "  The  world  as  it  is  "  is  the  province 
of  science.  "  The  God  of  the  things  as 

s^Us'"0rld          they   are"  is   the  G°d   °f   the    hi£hest 
heaven.     As  "  the  world  as  it  is  "  to  the 

sane  man  is  glorious,  beautiful,  noble,  and  divine,  so  will 
science  be  the  inspiration  of  art,  poetry,  and  religion. 

The  intellectual  growth  of  man  has 
The  conflict  been  one  long  struggie  between  the  ideas 

between  science         -    ,  .  ,     .       ,    ,.        ..     , 

,     ..  .  of  the  universe  derived  directly  from  re- 

and  religion. 

alities  and  the  ideas  derived  from  tradi- 
tion and  suggestion.  The  record  of  this  struggle  is  the 
most  valuable  part  of  history.  In  his  notable  record  of 
this  struggle  Dr.  John  W.  Draper  has  called  it  "The 


THE   STRUGGLE   FOR   REALITIES. 


375 


Conflict  between  Religion  and  Science."  But  the  inade- 
quacy of  this  definition  has  been  generally  recognised, 
for  the  conflict  has  chiefly  lain  between  religious  institu- 
tions and  the  progress  of  knowledge. 

Andrew  Dickson  White  calls  this  "  the  struggle  be- 
tween science  and  dogmatic   theology, 
The  struggle  the  conflict  between  two  epochs  in 

between  science         ,  ,      .  ,    ,  111 

and  do  ma  i  evolution    of   human    thought — the 

theology.  theological    and    the   scientific."      This 

idea  was  years  ago  crystallized  by  him 
in  these  memorable  words  : 

"  In  all  modern  history,  interference  with  science  in  the  sup- 
posed interest  of  religion,  no  matter  how  conscientious  such  in- 
terference may  have  been,  has  resulted  in  the  direst  evils  both  to 
religion  and  to  science,  and  invariably  ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  all 
untrammelled  scientific  investigation,  no  matter  how  dangerous  to 
religion  some  of  its  stages  may  have  seemed  for  the  time  to  be, 
has  invariably  resulted  in  the  highest  good,  both  of  religion  and 
of  science." 

From  the  standpoint  of  history,  this  struggle  has 
actually  been  one  between  organized  theology  and  un- 
organized science.  Preconceived  notions  of  theological 
science  became  entangled  with  crude  notions  of  all 
other  sciences.  In  the  experience  of  a  single  human 
life  there  is  little  to  correct  even  the  crudest  theology. 
From  the  supposed  greater  importance  of  theology  in 
determining  the  fate  of  the  individual  man,  theological 
conceptions  have  dominated  all  others.  Throughout 
the  ages  the  great  churches  have  been  the  stronghold  of 
conservatism.  Religious  bodies  have  formed  the  great 
organized  army  against  which  the  separated  bands  of 
science  hurled  themselves  apparently  in  vain. 

But  as  I  have  said  before,  the  real  essence  of  con- 
servatism lies  not  in  theology.  The  whole  conflict  is  a 
struggle  in  the  mind  of  man.  It  exists  in  human  psy- 


376  FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 

chology  before  it  is  wrought  out  in  human  history.     It 
is  the  struggle  of  realities  against  tradition  and  sugges- 
tion.   The  progress  of  civilization  would 
The  essence  of        gtin   haye  been   ^  guch  &  st  le  had 

conservatism.  ,.    . 

religion  or  theology  or  churches  or  wor- 
ship never  existed.  But  such  a  conception  is  impossi- 
ble, because  the  need  for  all  these  is  part  of  the  actual 
development  of  man. 

Intolerance  and  prejudice  are,  moreover,  not  con- 
fined to  religious  organizations.  The  same  spirit  that 

burned  Michael  Servetus  and  Giordano 
The  effort  to  BrunQ  fo].  tfae  heresies  of  science  led 

limit  thought.  ..... 

the  atheist  "  liberal      mob  of  Pans  to 

send  to  the  scaffold  the  great  chemist  Lavoisier,  "  with 
the  sneer  that  the  republic  has  no  need  of  savants." 
The  same  spirit  that  leads  the  orthodox  Gladstone  to 
reject  natural  selection  because  it  "relieves  God  of  the 
labour  of  creation,"  causes  the  heterodox  Haeckel  to 
condemn  Weismann's  theories  of  heredity,  not  because 
they  are  at  variance  with  facts,  but  because  such  ques- 
tions are  settled  once  for  all  by  the  great  philosophic 
dictum  of  monism. 

There  is  no  better  antidote  to  bigotry  than  the  study 
of  the  growth  of  knowledge.  There  is  no  chapter  in 
man's  history  more  encouraging  than  that  which  treats 
of  the  gradual  growth  of  open-mindedness.  The  study 
of  this  history  will  bring  religious  men  to  avoid  the  mis- 
takes of  intolerance  through  a  knowledge  of  the  evils 
to  which  intolerance  has  led  in  the  past.  Scientific  men 
will  be  spurred  to  better  work  by  the  record  that  through 
the  ages  objective  truth  has  been  the  final  test  of  all 
ideas.  All  men  will  be  more  sane  and  more  effective  in 
proportion  as  they  realize  that  no  good  can  come  from 
"  wishing  to  please  God  with  a  lie." 

The  conflict  of  science  is  usually  considered  as  the 


THE   STRUGGLE   FOR   REALITIES. 


377 


struggle  of  dogmatism  to  limit  knowledge.  But  another 
phase  of  the  same  warfare  is  the  desire  of  organized 
conservatism  to  limit  action.  Just  as  science  goes  over 
into  action,  so  does  dogmatism  pass  over  into  suppres- 
sion. The  struggle  for  democracy,  the  rise  of  the  com- 
mon man,  is  therefore  part  of  the  same  great  conflict 
for  human  freedom. 

The  desire  of  dogmatism  to  control  action  is  in  its 
essence  the  desire  to  save  men  from  their  own  folly. 
The  great  historic   churches   have   ex- 
isted "  for  the  benefit  of  the  weak  and 
control  action. 

the  poor.       By  their  observances  they 

have  stimulated  the  spirit  of  devotion.  By  their  com- 
mands they  have  protected  men  from  unwise  action. 
By  their  condemnations  they  have  saved  men  from  the 
grasp  of  vice  and  crime. 

But  the  control  of  action  by  an  institution  is  irksome 
to  the  man  who  thinks  for  himself.  Whoever  thinks  for 
himself  must  act  for  himself.  He  is  no  longer  subject 
to  "  sealed  orders,"  even  though  their  origin  be  divine. 
And  the  command  "  to  work  out  his  own  salvation,"  in 
such  way  as  he  may,  is  fatal  to  his  salvation  through  the 
means  provided  by  the  Church. 

As  it  is  natural  that  man  should  create  the  Church 

out  of  his  own  need  for  it,  so  is  it  natural  that  he  should 

rebel  against  its  control  when  he  shall 

The  passing  of        need  ^   nQ    ^  Individual   freedom 

institutions.  .  . 

is  the  goal  of  intellectual  progress.     It 

is  "  that  far-off  divine  event  toward  which  the  whole 
creation  moves."  It  is,  therefore,  in  the  highest  degree 
natural,  and  to  call  it  supernatural  is  to  say  the  same 
thing,  that  man  should  cast  off  the  fetters  of  traditional 
sanction  as  the  sanction  of  higher  wisdom  arises  to  take 
its  place. 


INDEX. 


Absolute  truth,  336. 
Abstinence,  good  reason  for,  276. 
Acceleration,  81. 

law  of,  230,  231. 

of  development,  26. 
Acquired  characters,  131. 

inheritance  of,  42,  97. 

transmission  of,  82,  83. 
Adaptation,  26,  87,  200. 

by  divergence,  69. 

not  progress,  68. 
Adolescence,  272. 
Adolescent  stage,  235. 
Adult  stage,  235. 
Agassiz,  latest  and  greatest  opponent 

of  theory  of  derivation,  43. 
Agassiz,  on  embryonic  development, 
231. 

on  facts,  29. 

on  thoughts  of  God,  345. 

on  unity  of  type,  8,  9. 
Aggregation  of  cells,  93. 
Alfred  the  Great,  141,  142. 
Algae,  reproduction  of,  164. 
Algebraic  expression  of  heredity,  124. 
Allah's  will,  289. 
Allen,  on  definition  of  species,  216. 

on  variation  in  Florida  birds,  215. 
All  life  from  life,  10. 
Altruism,  90. 

in  lower  animals,  92. 

of  parenthood,  315. 

value  of,  28. 


Amaltheus,  249. 
Ammonidea,  numbers  of,  245. 
Ammonites,  234. 
Amphiaster,  154. 
Anaphases,  156,  157. 
Anarcestes,  236,  243,  253. 
Ancestors,  141,  142. 
Ancon  sheep,  115. 
Ancylobranchia,  238. 
Angel  fish,  225. 
Angelichthys  ciliaris,  225. 
Anguilla,  43. 
Animal  pauperism,  279. 
Anomalies  in  distribution,  200. 
Ant-eater  of  Australia,  40. 
Antedon,  237. 
Anthropoid  apes,  67. 
Aosta,  cretins  of,  284-286. 
Arcestidas,  244. 
Archoplasm,  151. 
Arctic  birch,  208. 
Arpadetes,  234. 
Artemia,  112. 

Arthaber  on  ammonites,  249. 
Articles  of  scientific  faith,  346. 
Artificial  selection,  19. 
Ascaris,  153. 
development  of  eggs  of,  155,  159, 

160. 

Assimilation,  103,  104. 
Assisted  immigration,  308. 
Aster,  154. 
Astral  body,  352. 

379 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


380 

Astrosphere,  154. 
Attention,  274. 
Attraction  sphere,  151. 
Australia,  animal  plagues  of,  202. 
Australian  realm,  199. 
Authority,  356. 

Bacteria,  reproduction  of,  163. 
Bactrites,  243. 
Baculites,  245,  250. 
Bagehot  on  nonsense,  291. 
Baird  on  variations  of  birds,  214. 
Balanoglossus,  107. 
Balfour  on  belief,  334,  336. 

on  doubt  of  realities,  354. 
Barbara  on  goblins,  354. 
Barrande  on  trilobites,  239. 
Barriers  to  diffusion,  196. 

to  distribution,  206. 
Barry  on  larva  of  sea  urchins,  237. 
Battle  of  the  parts,  27. 
Baur,  origin  of  mammals.  230. 
Beagle,  voyage  of  the,  16. 
Beauty  as  a  weapon  of  defence,  318. 

of  young  girls,  318. 
Beecher  on  evolution  of  brachiopods, 

238. 
Beecher  on  larval  stages  of  trilobites, 

239- 

Bees  in  New  Zealand,  202. 
Berkeley  on  doubt  of  realities,  354. 
Belief  and  knowledge,  335. 
Belief,  foundation  of,  336,  340. 
Benevolence,  sins  of,  307. 
Bergen  on  adaptation,  26. 

on  cumulative  evidence,  191. 

on  geological  evolution,  32. 

on  natural  selection,  26. 
Bering  Sea  Commission,  269. 
Birch,  208. 

Birds  of  the  Galapagos,  13,  193. 
Bionomics,  58. 
Biophores,  104,  177,  178. 
Bismarck,  on  the  educated  proletariat, 

295. 
Bob,  a  monkey,  266. 


Bohun,  lineage  of,  142. 
Borderland  dwellers,  290. 
Borderlanders,  290. 
Borderland  of  spirit,  274,  340. 
Boveri,  on  centrosome,  151. 

on  cleavage  of  chromatin,  185-187, 
189. 

on  development  of  egg  cells,  184. 

on  fertilization  of  egg,  173. 

on  generation  of  egg  cells,  159. 
Blood  relationship,  48. 
Blue  blood,  128,  144. 
Bosanquet,  on  essence  of  prayer,  61. 
Boyesen,  on  evolution,  53. 
Branchiata,  112. 
Branco,  on  ammonites,  246. 

on  larval  ammonites,  251. 
Brauer,   on  development    of    sperm 

cells,  184. 

Brewer,  on  continued  starvation,  112. 
Brooks,  on  brachiopods,  238. 

on  heredity,  125,  126. 
Brother  Jonathan,  lineage  of,  145. 
Brown-Sequard,  on  mutilations,  115. 
Brucke,  on  structure  and  life,  104. 
Bruno,  burning  of,  376. 
Byron,  on  woman's  education,  324. 

Caldwell,  on  monotremes,  40. 

Cape  Verde  Islands,  13,  193. 

Carbon  molecule,  347. 

Cells,  148,  149. 

Cell  theory,  147. 

Cell,  unit  of  life  forces,  103. 

Centrosome,  151,  154. 

Cephalization,  227. 

Cephalopoda,  evolution  of,  229,  240. 

Ceratites,  234. 

Ceratitidae,  244. 

Cercopithecus,  266. 

Chain  of  life,  355. 

Chamfort,  on  woman's  position,  323. 

Change  not  progress,  32. 

Characters  innate  or  acquired,  131. 

latent  and  potent,  104. 

not  necessarily  useful,  218. 


INDEX. 


381 


Charity  creates  misery,  283. 

true  function  of,  311. 
Cherry,  origin  of  the  name,  217. 
Chilodon,  162. 
Chromatin,  3,  121,  151. 

bearer  of  hereditary  influences,  185. 
Chromosomes,  153. 

reduction  of,  176,  178. 

splitting  of,  155. 
City  life,  227. 
Cirripedia,  species  of,  213. 
City  of  the  dreadful  night,  301. 
Clam,  long  siphon  of,  114. 
Clarke  on  evolution  of  brachiopods, 

238. 

Clavier  theory,  270. 
Clem  murder,  304. 
Climate  a  barrier  to  distribution, 

206. 

Clover  and  bees,  21. 
Clymenia,  245. 

Colburn  on  philosophic  belief,  351. 
Colonial  consciousness,  271. 
Compensation,  law  of,  94. 
Complex    components    in    develop- 
ment, 103. 

Complex  structures,  origin  of,  34. 
Conception,  political,  307,  309. 
Concessions  of  life,  77. 
Cogito  ergo  sum,  271. 
Conjugation,  166,  167. 

of  infusoria,  92,  163. 

of  protozoa,  162. 

Conklin  on  factors  of  evolution,  100. 
Consciousness,  256,  271. 
Conservatism,  376. 
Conventionality,  356,  371. 
Co-operation  of  cells,  93. 
Cope,  factors  of  organic  evolution, 
in. 

on  acceleration,  26. 

on  doubtful  species,  212. 

on  factors  in  development,  102. 

on  fossil  reptiles,  40. 

on  Lamarckian  factors,  116. 

on  retardation,  233. 


Cope  on  stretch  and  impact  of  bones, 
"5- 

on  variation  in  shells,  n. 

origin  of  reptiles,  230. 
Copepods,  181. 

Coral  reefs,  centre  of  life,  225.. 
Corpuscular  theory  a  necessary  make- 
shift, 104. 
Cosmic  order,  function  of  law,  63. 
Cottontail,  24. 
Coues  on  definition  of  species,  216. 

on  meaning  of  species,  44. 

on  migration,  195. 
Course  of  life,  363. 
Courteney,  lineage  of,  142. 
Crackers,  306. 
Cramer  on  lessons  of  Darwin's  work, 

64. 

Creation,  method  of,  10. 
Cress  in  New  Zealand,  104. 
Cretins,  284. 

marriage  of,  286. 
Crinoids,  229. 
Crioceras,  250. 
Crustacea,  evolution  of,  239. 
Cumulative  evidence,  192. 
Cuvier  on  special  creation,  7. 
Cycloids,  229. 
Cyclops,  181. 
Cyrtoceras,  241. 
Cytoblastema,  152. 
Cytolymph,  150. 
Cytoplasm,  103,  150,  154,  167. 

Dareste  on  origin  of  eels,  43. 

Darters,  46. 

Darwin  in  Westminster,  52. 

on  cirripedia,  213. 

on  evidence  of  embryology,  37. 

on  isolation,  192. 

on  law,  58. 

on  meaning  of  facts,  64. 

on  gemmules,  104. 

on  secondary  causes,  51. 

on  struggle  for  existence,  85,  86. 

on  dependence  of  species,  208. 


332 


FOOT-NOTES  TO   EVOLUTION. 


Darwin  on  theology  and  science,  50. 

spirit  of,  53. 

studies  of  the  Galapagos,  12. 
Darwin's  confidence  in  future,  42. 

home,  52. 

origin  of  species,  17 

plan  of  work,   16. 
Darwinian  hypothesis,  69. 

theory,  17. 
Darwinism,  30,  64,  117. 

a  working  hypothesis,  65. 

objections  to,  42. 

not  compelled  by  authority,  45. 
Daughter  cells,  156. 
Dead  hands  in  heredity,  124. 
Death,  value  of,  28. 
Decadence,  causes  of,  295. 
Decadent  literature,  294. 
De  Candolle  on  definition  of  species, 

212. 

Degenerates,  290. 
Degeneration,  273,  277,  280,  281. 

in  inactivity,  302. 

in  isolation,  287. 

in  luxury,  289. 

in  slavery,  288. 

in  the  slums,  288. 

in  the  tropics,  288. 

of  eels,  228. 

of  marine  animals,  277. 

of  mental  dyspepsia,  290. 

of  parasites,  278. 

of  races,  282. 

of  senility,  282. 

through  charity,  283. 

under  institutions,  297. 
Degeneres  superieurs,  290. 
Descent,  theory  of,  47. 
Despondency  in  Europe,  295. 
Determinants,  177. 
De  Vries  on  pangenes,  104,  178. 
Dickinson  on  plagues  of  Australia, 

202. 

Diener  on  ammonites,  249. 
Direct  division  in  cells,  158. 
Disuse  a  factor  in  development,  113. 


Diversity  in  life,  3. 
Distribution  of  fishes,  86. 

of  species,  191. 

Dogmatism  in  control  of  action,  377. 
Doubtful  species,  212. 
Down,  the  home  of  Darwin,  52. 
Drake,  the  lineage  of,  142. 

of  Windsor,  143. 

Draper  on  conflict  with  religion,  368. 
Driesch  on  unknowable  factors,  98. 
Drugs,  effect  of,  275. 
Duck  bill,  40. 
Dugdale,  303. 

on  the  Jukes,  287. 

Dwight  on  variations  in  shore  larks, 
214. 

Echinoderms,  development  of,  237. 

eggs  of,  107. 
Echinus,  175. 

microtuberculatus,  186. 
Edentates  of  South  America,  14. 
Edwards  on  lineage  of  a  little  girl, 

142. 

Edwards,  Mary  Stockton,  142. 
Eels,  origin  of,  43,  228. 
Effort,  89. 

of  animals,  26. 
Egg-bearing,  reflex  effect  of,  313. 

cell,  development  of,  170,  172. 

maturing  of,  170. 

of  mammals,  39. 

of  metazoa,  168. 
Ego,  138,  140,  270. 

a  co-operation,  140. 

development  of,  272. 
Egomania,  294. 
Elderkin,  lineage  of,  142. 
Embryo  in  egg  at  all  stages,  108. 
Embryology,  35-3?- 

testimony  of,  100. 
Embryonic  development,  231. 

formula,  139. 

stage,  235. 

structures  in  man,  40. 
Embryo  primarily  sexless,  136. 


INDEX. 


383 


Embryo,    reduction   in   numbers  of, 

3i4- 
Emerson    on    pretending    to    know, 

349- 

on  soundness  of  life,  6r. 

on  the  wholesome  world,  297. 
Endoceras,  241. 
Energide,  148. 
Englishman,  origin  of,  145. 
Ennui,  274. 
Entomoceras,  250. 
Environment,  influence  of,  77. 
Ephebic  stage,  235. 
Epoch-making  events,  32. 
Equilibrium  of  Nature,  23,  208. 
Essential  parts  of  cell,  149. 
Eternal  womanly,  the,  315. 
Ethiopian  realm,  198. 
Eudorina,  166. 

Evermann  on  Two-Ocean  Pass,  206. 
Evolution,  54. 

a  method  of  study,  65. 

and  pessimism,  316. 

as  a  theory,  63. 

a    system    of    cosmic    philosophy, 
65. 

by  leaps,  69. 

inorganic,  57. 

method  of,  100. 

not  a  creed,  73. 

not  a  religion,  73. 

not  dynamic,  88. 

not  occult,  73. 

of  home,  329. 

of  mind,  256. 

orderly  change,  70. 

organic,  57. 

philosophy  of,  46,  316. 

Spencer's  formula  of,  47. 

of  woman,  312. 
Exact  and  inexact  sciences,  58. 
Experience  and  knowledge,  337. 

inadequate,  337. 
External  stimulus,  257. 
Extinction  of  animals,  206. 
Extrinsic  causes  of  change,  101. 
26 


Factors  of  organic  evolution,  ico. 

unknown,  98. 

Failing  beliefs  claim  orthodoxy,  50. 
Fame  and  greatness,  140. 
Fauna,  analogy  to  language,  217. 
Fear,  373. 

Fearn  on  prenatal  influences,  135. 
Fertilization  of  egg,  1 73,  1 74. 
Fichte  on  the  -ego,  140. 
Firehole  River,  205. 
Fishes,  evolution  of,  221. 
Fiske  on  method  of  evolution,  65. 

on  prolonged  infancy,  329. 
Fitness,  18. 

Flounders,  vertebra  of,  221. 
Flying-fish,  211. 
Food  yolk  in  egg,  39. 
Fool-killing,  359. 

killer,  358. 

Foreign  immigration,  308. 
Forces  as  thoughts  of  God,  9. 
Formula  of  the  embryo,  137. 
Formulas,  decay  of,  66. 
Foundations  of  belief,  336,  340. 
Foxes  in  Australia,  304. 
Frederic  on   development    of    boys, 

326. 

Function  before  structure,  256. 
Fundulus,  eggs  of,  106. 
Fur  seal,  homing  of  the,  265. 

intellect  of,  269. 

Galapagos  Islands,  12,  192. 
Gallon  on  acquired  characters,  351. 

on  degeneration  of  blue  blood,  144. 

on  quantitative  estimate  of  heredi- 
ty, 127. 

on  mid-parent,  125. 
Gasteropods,  in. 
Gastrioceras,  244. 
Gate  of  Gifts,  133. 
Geddes  on  bionomics,  58. 
Gemmules,  104. 
Genius  not  a  disease  of  the  nerves, 

293- 
Geographical  variations,  211,  214. 


334 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


Geographical  distribution,  31. 
Geological  record,  230. 
Germ  cell,  121. 

cells  fundamentally  alike,  169. 

cells,  specialization  of,  313. 
Germinal  protoplasm,  101. 

variation,  81. 

Germ-plasm,  stability  of,  109. 
Geometric  increase,  20^ 
Gerontic  stage,  235. 
Gill  slits  in  man,  41. 
Girls,  beauty  of,  318. 
Gladstone  on  natural  selection,  376. 
Glyphioceras,  253,  254. 
Goblins,  reality  of,  354. 
God,  growing  conception  of,  51. 
Goethe  on  heredity,  27,  118. 

the  "  sanest  of  men,"  8. 
Goodale  on  artificial  selection,  19. 
Goniatites,  244. 

Graf,  on  colours  of  leeches,  106. 
Gray,  evidence  for  derivation,  220. 

on  plants  as  thermometers,  206. 
Great  Smoky  Mountains,  287. 
Green  on  increase  of  sparrows,  22. 
Greenling,  224. 
Grenville,  lineage  of,  142. 
Gronlund  on  woman's  work,  332. 
Guelph,  house  of,  142. 
Gunther  on  British  salmon,  46. 
Gyroceras,  241. 

Haacke  on  monotremes,  40. 
Haeckel,  confession  of  faith,  346. 

on  acquired  characters,  350. 

on  belief,  349. 

on  law  of  development,  233. 

on  monism,  346. 

on  the  gaseous  vertebrate,  340. 

on  the  maker  of  life,  347. 

on  Weismannism,  376. 
Haeckel's  orthodoxy,  352. 
Hares,  species  of,  24. 
Hatschek,  phylogenetic  changes,  10 
Hatteria,  34. 
Haug  on  ammonites,  350. 


Hawiey,  lineage  of,  142. 
Hearts  insurgent,  295. 
Hegel,  orgy  of  ego  of,  140. 
Helmholtz  on  philosophy,  342. 
Henneguy  on  reproduction  of  infuse 

ria,  163. 
Henshaw  on  variation  in  shore  larks, 

214. 

Herbst  on  eggs  of  echinoderms,  107. 
Herbst's  experiments  on  larvae,  113. 
Hercules,  strangling  snakes,  268. 
Heredity,  75. 

algebraic  expression  of,  124. 

of  inefficiency,  299. 

of  Richard  Roe,  118. 

physical  basis  of,  76,  147. 
Hertwig,  idioblasts,  104,  178. 

on  size  of  sperm  cell,  173. 
Hexagrammos  decagrammus,  224. 
Higher  foolishness,  290. 

heredity,  262. 

Hirsch  on  degeneration,  290. 
His  on  intrinsic  causes,  102. 
Holarctic  realm,  106. 
Holmes  on  John's  John,  338. 
Home,  evolution  of,  329. 
Homing  instinct,  265. 
Homogeneity  to  heterogeneity,  47. 
Homology,  3. 

meaning  of,  4,  18,  48,  64. 

origin  of,  5. 
Homo  sapiens,  211. 
Hooker,  letter  from  Darwin,  15. 

on  life  in  New  Zealand,  202. 
Horned  larks,  214. 
Huggins,  pauper  record  of,  306. 
Hundsoire,  209. 
Huxley  on  England's  greatness,  22. 

on  extinguished  theologians,  50. 

on  human  suffering,  354. 

on  make-believe,  350. 

on  materialistic  symbols,  270. 

on  Nature's  obduracy,  16. 

on  persistence  of  energy,  55. 

on  theologians,  368. 
Hyatt  on  acceleration,  233. 


INDEX. 


385 


Hyatt   on   ontogeny   of   ammonites, 

250. 

on  orthoceras,  241. 
Hyperassthesia,  274. 
Hysteria,  275,  294. 

Ibergiceras,  236. 
Ibsen's  characters,  293. 

ghosts,  136. 
Ichthyocrinoidea,  237. 
Ichthyization,  225. 
Idants,  177. 
Ideals,  362. 
Idioblasts,  104,  178. 
Ids,  177. 
Illusions,  263. 
Impact  of  bones,  115. 
Impulse  and  action,  273. 
In-and-in  breeding,  128. 
Indianapolis,  pauper  record  of,  304. 
Indian  realm,  198. 
Individual  an  epitome  of  race,  36. 
Individualism  in  character,  298. 
Individuality,  80. 
Inefficiency,  299. 
Infinite  Being,  341. 
Inherited  characters    predetermined, 

101. 
Inheritance  of  humanity,  120. 

of  individuality,  120. 

of  race,  120. 
Innate  characters,  131. 
Inspired  idiots,  290. 
Instability,  257. 
Instinct,  265,  356. 

and  intellect,  369. 
Institutions,  degeneration  under,  297. 

passing  of,  377. 
Intellect,  265,  357. 

choice  of  responses,  268. 

nature  of,  369. 
Intrinsic  causes,  101. 

forces  and  protoplasmic  structure, 

101. 

Invasion  of  weeds,  201. 
Isolation,  96,  195. 


Isolation,  degeneration  in,  287. 
Ishmael,  tribe  of,  304. 

Jackson     on     evolution    of    echino- 
derms,  237. 

on  pelecypoda,  240. 

on  siphons  of  clams,  114. 
Jacob  and  Laban,  134. 
James  on  philosophy,  343. 
Jenkins  on  Two-Ocean  Pass,  206. 
John  Bull,  lineage  of,  145. 
John's  John,  338. 
Jordan,  lineage  of,  142. 
Jocko,  266. 
Jukes,  degeneracy  of,  287. 

Kant  on  philosophic  revery,  296. 
Karpinsky  on    development   of   am- 
monites, 236. 

on  larval  ammonites,  251. 
Karyokinesis,  152,  157,  158,  177. 
Katagenesis,  102. 
Kelvin  on  size  of  molecule,  348. 
Kindness  of  woman,  319. 
King  on  "the  rotten  side  of  things," 

292. 
Kingsley  on  embryological  evidence, 

37- 
Kinship  and  homology,  49. 

of  life,  i. 

the  sacred,  53. 

Knowing  and  believing,  351. 
Knowledge  and  belief,  344. 

will,  and  obedience,  276. 
Kovalevski  on  brachiopods,  238. 

Lacaze-Duthiers  on  brachiopods,  258. 
Lady-nuisance,  324. 
Lamarck,  laws  of  heredity,  82. 

on  transmutation  of  species,  8. 
Lamarckian  factors,  116. 

principle,  the,  no. 

theory,  115. 

Language,     analogy    to     a     fauna, 
217. 


386 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


Lankester  on  degeneration,  305. 
Larval  stage,  235. 
Latent  characters,  104. 
Latitude  and  vertebras,  221. 
Lavoisier,  murder  of,  376. 
Law  as  sequence  of  events,  58. 

meaning  of,  59. 
Laws,  not  broken  nor  repealed,  61. 

of  distribution,  96. 

of  distribution  of  animals,  206. 
Learning  and  wisdom,  368. 
Ledsmar,  Dr.,  326. 
Leeches,  colours  of,  107. 
Lepus  americanus,  24. 

sylvaticus,  24. 

Lessing  on  perfect  truth,  341,  364. 
Life  a  function  of  organization,  106. 
Linnaeus,  view  of  species,  2,  6. 
Lituites,  242. 

Locomotion  and  sensation,  261. 
Loco-weeds,  268. 
Locust  in  Australia,  204. 
Loeb  on  inheritance  of  heat,  107. 

on  striping  of  fish  eggs,  106. 
Logical  necessity,  349. 
Lombroso  on  mattoids,  290. 
Lord-nuisance,  327. 
Love,  value  of,  28. 
Lowell  on  dominion,  256,  276. 
Luxury,  degeneration  in,  289. 
Lytoceras,  245. 

Mattoids,  283,  250,  291. 
Maturity  of  woman,  319. 
Maudsley,  290. 

McCulloch  on  combination,  91. 
on  indiscriminate  charity,  307. 
McFarland  on  physical  basis  of  he- 
redity, 147. 
Meckel  on    embryonic  development, 

23r' 

Medlicottia,  236,  244. 
Mental  pauperism,  298. 
Metabolism,  103. 
Metaphases,  157. 
Metazoa,  reproduction  in,  162,  168. 


Micellae,  104,  178. 

Mid-parent,  the,  125. 

Migration  changes  species,  195. 

Militarism,  effect  on  woman,  330. 

Military  selection,  284. 

Miller  on  tropical  forests,  198. 

Miltites,  247. 

Macacus,  266. 

Mackerel,  223. 

Macroscaphites,  245. 

Magnan,  290. 

Maker  of  life  the  carbon   molecule, 

347- 
Malthus,  doctrine  of,  21. 

law  of  population,  86. 
Man  a  developed  monkey,  67. 

origin  of,  47. 

Maoris  in  New  Zealand,  202. 
Marcus  Aurelius,  292. 
Marriage,  equal,  332. 

laws,  325. 

Marsh,  origin  of  the  horse,  230. 
Marvels  of  life,  258. 
Maternity,  314. 

Material  basis  of  heredity,  190. 
Materialistic  symbols,  270. 
Matter  relations  not  realities,  339. 
Milton's  view  of  creation,  10. 
Mimoceras,  243. 
Mind,  evolution  of,  256. 

in  plants,  260. 

nature  of,  369. 
Minnows,  46. 
Misery  from  charity,  283. 
Missing  links,  48,  215. 
Mistletoe,  20. 

Mojsisovic,  on  ammonites,  249. 
Mollusca,  evolution  of,  239. 
Monism,  71,  346. 

not  science,  347. 
Monistic  confession,  353. 
Monkey  geniuses,  290. 
Monkeys,  homologies  with  men,  50. 

intellect  and  instinct  in,  266, 
Mono,  266. 
Monotremes,  40. 


INDEX. 


387 


Morse  on  brachiopods,  238. 
Multicellular  organisms,  149. 
Mutilations,  115. 
Mutual  help,  95. 

preserves  incapables,  300. 
Mya,  114. 
Mysticism,  294. 

Nageli,  152. 

on  micella  groups,  104,  178. 

on  preformation  in  embryo,  io3. 
Nations,  sanity  of,  276. 
Natural  and  supernatural,  58. 
Natural  selection,  18,  19,  83. 

in  race  development,  145. 
Nature  as  figure  of  speech,  62. 

insensibility  of,  61. 
Nautilus,  240. 
Neamic  stage,  235. 
Negro    suffrage    a    choice    of    evils, 

308. 

Neo-Lamarckism,  131. 
Neo-Lamarckian  school,  82. 
Neotropical  realm,  198. 
Nepeonic  stage,  235. 
Neptunism,  351. 
Newman  on  dependence  of  clover  on 

bees,  22. 
Newton,  52. 

in  Westminster  Abbey,  74. 
New  Zealand,  changes  in  life,  201. 
Nietsche,  ownership  of  day  after  to- 
morrow, 292. 
Nordau  on  degenerates,  290. 

on  degeneration,  289. 

on  the  normal  man,  292. 
Norman  blood,  142. 
Normal  man,  292. 
Nucleoli,  151. 
Nucleus,  150,  153. 
Nutrition,  97. 

diminution  of,  in. 

Objections  to  Darwinism,  41. 
Omne  vivum  ex  vivo,  71. 
Omnis  cellula  e  cellula,  152. 


Ontogeny,  100. 

Ontogenetic  stages,  235. 

Organic  evolution,  elements  of,  75. 

factors  of,  ico. 

science  of,  55. 
Organism,  103. 
Origin  of  the  fittest,  83. 
Origin  of  man,  47. 
Orthoceras,  241,  242. 
Osborn  on  Lamarckism,  115. 

on  prenatal  influences,  134. 

on  variation,  81. 

on  supposititious  factors,  98. 

on  unknown  factors,  98. 
Otocoris  alpestris,  214. 
Ovogonia,  170. 
Owls,  white  in  winter,  25. 

Pacific  Railway  survey,  213. 

Pain,  362. 

Paleontogeny,  236. 

Pandorina,  164,  165. 

Pangenes,  104,  178. 

Pantheism,  346. 

Paralegoceras,  244,  254. 

Parasites,  278. 

Parasitism,    source    of    corruption, 

307- 

Passenger  pigeons,  207. 
Pattison,  quotation  from  Kant,  296. 
Pauperism,  279. 

and  poverty,  301. 
Paupers  as  parasites,  307. 
Pelecypoda,  240. 
Pentacrinus,  237. 
Pessimism,  316. 

condemnation  of,  273. 

view  of  woman,  326. 

woman  6f,  312. 
Philosophy  and  truth,  342. 
Philosophy  as  schlechtes  Stoff,  342. 
Phrynosoma  blainvillei,  35. 
Phylogeny,  100,  230. 
Physical  basis  of  heredity,  147. 
Physiological  isolation,  219. 

units,  104,  177,  178. 


388 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


Pigeons,  extermination  of,  207. 

Pikes,  306. 

Pinacoceratidae,  244. 

Pineal  eye,  34. 

Plantagenet,  lineage  of,  142. 

Plasomes,  104,  178. 

Pluteus,  107. 

Plutonism,  351. 

Polar  bodies,  171. 

Pompeckj    on  abnormal  ammonites, 

245- 

Poor  whites,  287. 
Popanoceras,  244. 
Poronorites,  244. 
Porto  Santo  rabbit,  96. 
Potentialities  only  inherited,  I3r. 
Poulton's  experiments  on  colours  of 

larvae,  114. 
Poverty,  301. 

Practicality  of  senses,  357. 
Prayer,  essence  of,  61. 
Predetermination  in  the  egg,  105. 
Prenatal  influences,  133-135. 
Primogeniture,  142-144. 
Prionoceras,  254. 
Progress  and  poverty.  357. 
Progression,    supposed   innate  tend- 
ency of,  70. 
Prolecanitidae,  244. 
Promedlicottia,  236. 
Pronontes,  236,  244. 
Propelacanites,  236. 
Prophases,  157. 
Protoplasm,    2,    101,    103,    121,    150, 

346. 
Protozoa,  equality  of  sex  in,  312. 

functions  of,  257. 

reproduction  of,  162. 
Protyl,  343. 
Psiloceras,  247. 
Psychic  changes,  256. 

phenomena,  274. 
Ptarmigans,  white  in  winter,  25. 

Quantitative    estimate    of    heredity, 
127. 


Quenstedt    on  Jurassic    ammonites, 

243,  249. 
Quiescent  animals,  277. 

Rabbit,  species  of,  24. 
Rabbits  in  Australia,  202,  203. 

white  in  winter,  24. 
Race  degeneration,  282. 

types,  146. 
Rain,  law  of,  60. 
Rauber  on  frogs'  eggs,  185. 
Reade  on  woman's  secrecy,  319. 
Realms  of  life,  ic,6. 
Realities,  262. 

struggle  for,  366. 

trust  in,  360. 
Reason  inadequate,  337. 
Recrudescence  of  superstition,  358. 
Reduction  of  chromosomes,  178. 
Reflex  action,  261. 
Reid  on  acquired  characters,  131. 
Reincarnation,  349. 
Religion,  345. 
Remak,  152. 
Reproduction,  162. 
Reproductive  tissues,  158. 
Retardation,  82,  233. 
Revery,  254. 

Richard  Roe,  heredity  of,  118. 
Rickert  on  reproduction  of  Cyclops, 

181,  182. 
Riley    on    "goblins   that  get  you," 

354- 

Rock-fish,  224. 

Romanes    on     Lamarckian    factors, 
116. 

on  mutilations,  115. 

on  unknown  factors,  98. 

on  Weismann's  theories,  no. 
Ross  on  despair,  295. 

on  the  ego,  139. 

Rousseau  on  woman's  genius,  322. 
Roux    on    components    of    develop- 
ment, 102. 

on  the  final  word,  117. 

on  nuclear  division,  176. 


INDEX. 


389 


Sacculina,  278-280,  303. 
Sachs  on  energides,  148. 
Saint-Hilaire  on  derivation  of  spe- 
cies, 8. 

Salic  law,  324. 
Salisbury  on  belief,  334. 

on  knowledge,  336. 
Saltatory  evolution,  69. 
Salvation  Army,  274. 
Sanction,  mystic,  366. 
Sanity,  340. 

of  life,  276. 
Science  as  altruism,  335. 

devices  of,  360. 

its  limits,  553. 

its  own  witness,  74. 
Schenck  on  sex  control,  137. 
Schizomycetes,  163. 
Schleiden    on    cells  of   plants,    147, 

152- 

Schloenbachia,  254. 
Schmankewitsch   on  development  of 

shrimps,  112. 

Schopenhauer  on  freedom  from  mar- 
riage, 329. 

on  marriage,  325. 

on  pessimism,  315. 

on  woman,  317. 
Schuchert  on   evolution   of   brachio- 

pods,  238. 

Schultze  on  cell  structure,  147. 
Schurman  on  ultimate  truth,  341. 
Schwann   on   cells  of  animals,   147, 

152. 

Scott  on  unknown  factors,  98. 
Sealed  orders,  377. 
Sea  urchins,  development  of,  237. 

urchin,  egg  of,  175. 
Sebastodes  miniatus,  224. 
Secondary  causes,  50,  51. 
Second  nature,  264. 
Seelye  on  zoophytes,  69. 
Selection,  18. 

becomes  adaptation,  26. 

of  sensation,  261. 
Self-activity,  89. 


Self  and  non-self,  259. 
Senescence  of  protozoa,  162. 
Senility,  282. 
Sensation  and  action,  259,  360. 

without  action,  273. 
Sensations,  practicality  of,  370. 
Sensorium,  264. 
Servetus,  burning  of,  376. 
Sex  control,  137. 

determination  of,  136. 
Sexless  embryo,  136. 
Sex,  meaning  of,  312. 
Sexus  sequior,  323. 
Shipley  on  brachiopods,  238. 
Shore  larks,  214. 
Sicanites,  236. 

Silva   (Carmen)    on    prenatal   influ- 
ences, 134. 
Simple  components  in  development, 

103. 

Slavery,  288. 

Slums,  degeneration  in,  288. 
Smith,  on  fossil  cephalopoda,  229. 
Sober  mind,  358. 
Somatic  protoplasm,  101. 

tissues,  158. 

Somerville,  selective  breeding,  19. 
Sparrow,  increase  of,  22. 
Special  creation,  10. 
Species,  analogy  with  words,  216. 

and  varieties,  211. 

as  divine  ideas,  9. 

change  with  space,  14. 

change  with  time,  14,  219. 

definition  of,  212. 

development  of,  45. 

distribution  of,  191. 

good  and  bad,  n. 

how  denned,  215. 

meaning  of,  i. 

number  of,  2. 

of  North  American  fishes,  12. 

origin  of,  5. 

old  idea  of,  44. 

reality  of,  44. 

uncertainty  of  definition  of,  n. 


390 


FOOT-NOTES   TO   EVOLUTION. 


Species,  varieties  of  a  larger  growth, 

ii. 

Spencer  on  acquired  characters,  98, 
13°,  131- 

on  philosophy    of    evolution,    46, 
66. 

on  physiological  units,  104,  178. 

on  survival  of  the  fittest,  18,  84. 
Spent  passions  transmitted,  136. 
Spermatocyte,  171. 
Spermatozoids,  168. 
Sperm  cell,  171. 
Sphasrechinus  granularis,  186. 
Spindle,  151. 

of  cell  nucleus,  154. 
Spiritual  pauperism,  298. 
Spontaneous  generation,  5,  71,  346, 

348. 

Stability  of  truth,  334. 
Stages  in  development,  235. 
Starbuck  on  adolescence,  272. 
Star,  origin  of  the  word,  217. 
Starvation,    effect    on    development, 

112. 

Station  life  in  Australia,  205. 
"  Stature  from  father,"  27,  118. 
Stead,  290. 

Steinmann  on  ammonites,  246. 
Struggle  for  existence,  19,  85,  86. 

for  existence  threefold,  29,  85. 

for  realities,  366. 
Styrites,  247. 
Subspecies,  211. 
Suggestion,  371. 
Superstition,  growth  of,  358. 
Survival  of  the  existing,  31,  97,  146, 

218. 
Survival  of  the  fittest,  18,  83,  84, 146, 

301. 
Systema  naturae,  i. 

Tachygenesis,  232. 
Tapir  in  North  America,  200. 
Taylor,  translation  from  Goethe,  118. 
Telophases,  156,  157. 
Tentaculites,  240. 


Ternoceras,  253. 

Test  of  truth,  342. 

Tetrads,  180,  181. 

Thalassoceras,  244. 

Theologians,  50. 

Theology  and  science,  meeting  point, 

5°- 

Thistles  in  Australia,  204. 
Thomson  on  larva  of  echinoderms, 

237- 

Thoreau  on  degeneration  of  villagers, 
297. 

on  insensibility  of  Nature,  61. 

on  market  for  blood,  328. 

on  passing  of  institutions,  298. 
Thoroughbreds,  126-128. 
Three-eyed  vertebrates,  34. 
Thyroid  gland,  disease  of  the,  284. 
Tirolites,  234. 
Trachyceras,  234,  247. 
Tradition,  367. 
Transmission  of  vitality,  135. 
Tribe  of  Ishmael,  304. 
Trifolium  pratense,  21. 

repens,  21. 

Trilobites,  evolution  of,  239. 
Triviality  of  woman,  319. 
Tropiceltites,  247. 
Tropics,  degeneration  in  the,  288. 
Tropical  life,  198,  227. 
Tropitidse,  244. 

Trout  in  Yellowstone  Park,  205. 
Trust  in  realities,  360. 
Truth  not  absolute,  336. 

stability  of,  334. 

test  of,  342. 

the  perfect,  365. 
Tunicates,  278. 
Turnspit  dogs,  115. 
Turrilites,  245. 
Two  worlds  at  once,  359. 
Tyndall,  experiments  of,  71. 
Tyranny,  evolution  of,  331. 

Ultimate  truth  unknown,  341. 
Unger  on  cells,  152. 


INDEX. 


391 


Unicellular  organisms,  149. 
Units  of  life,  177. 
Unity  in  Nature,  346. 

of  type,  2. 
Use  and  disuse,  113. 

Van  Beneden  on  centrosome,  151. 
Variability,  104. 
Varieties,  211. 
Variety  in  life,  i. 

produced    by  bisexual    parentage, 

27. 
Vertebras  of  deep-sea  fishes,  222. 

of  extinct  fishes,  223. 

of  fresh-water  fishes,  222. 

of  northern  fishes,  221. 

of  pelagic  fishes,  222. 

of  tropical  fishes,  222. 
Vestigial  organs,  33. 
Virchow     on     derivation    of    cells, 

152. 

Virtue,  264. 
Vital  force,  346. 
Vital  units,  104,  177. 
Volvox,  167. 
"Vom  Vater  hab'  ich  die  Statur," 

27. 

Von  Buch  on  ammonites,  243. 
Von  Mohl  on  cells,  152. 

Waagen  on  ammonites,  249. 
Wakefield  on  animal    life    in   New 

Zealand,  201. 
Waldo,  lineage  of,  162. 
Wallace      on    acquired     characters, 
129. 

on  evolution  of  mind,  352. 

on  isolation,  192. 

on  the  holarctic  realm,  197. 
Ward  on  acquired  characters,  130. 
Warfare  of  science,  368,  375. 
Warner  on  true  function  of  charity, 
3"- 

on  brotherly  love,  96. 
Weasels,  white  in  winter,  25. 
Weeds,  201. 


Weismann  on  adaptation,  87. 
Weismann    on    acquired  characters, 
I29.  35i- 

onbiophores,  104,  178. 

on  bisexual  parentage,  313. 

on  cell  division,  94. 

on  Lamarckian  factors,  116. 

on  prenatal  influences,  134. 

on  stable  germ  plasm,  109. 

theory  of  heredity,  177,  178,  376. 
Weissmann's  theories,  no. 
White  on  the  struggle  with  dogmatic 

theology,  369,  375. 

Whitman  (Walt)   on  parental  envi- 
ronment, 133. 

on  structure,  the  basis  of  life,  104, 

106. 

Whymper  on  cretins,  285,  286. 
Wiesner  on  plasomes,  104,  178. 
Wilberf  orce  on  developed  turnips,  68. 
Will,  263. 

William  the  Conqueror,  141,  142. 
Wilson  on  size  of  sperm  cell,  173. 
Winter  pelage  white,  25. 
Wisdom,  263. 

sanction  of,  377. 
Withered  branches,  283. 
Woman,  dependence  of,  326. 

deceit  of,  319. 

difficulties  in  being  one,  332. 

in  division  of  labour,  315. 

emancipation  of,  331. 

enmity  of,  320. 

kindness  of,  319. 

obedience  of,  326. 

on  manual  labour,  328. 

normal  work  of,  328. 

philistinism  of,  323. 

secrecy  of,  319. 

the  sexus  sequior,  323. 

the  una^sthetic  sex,  321. 

triviality  of,  318. 

not  undeveloped  man,  315. 
Women  as  road-menders,  324. 
Woodruff  on  Egyptian  fatalism,  289. 
Words,  origin  of,  216. 


392 


FOOT-NOTES   TO    EVOLUTION. 


Working  hypothesis,  255. 
World  as  it  is,  264. 

that  is,  274. 
Worship,  373. 

Wurtemberger  on  the  law  of  develop- 
ment, 233. 

Yolk  of  egg,  39. 

Youatt  on  selective  breeding,  19. 


Youmans  on   life    in   New  Zealand, 
202. 

Zahme  Xenien,  118. 
Zangwill    on    the    ' '  higher    foolish- 
ness," 290. 

Zittel  on  ammonites.  246. 
Zoological  Record,  2. 
Zjgotes,  165. 


THE    END. 


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OF  EVOLUTION,  from  Thales  to 
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ing point  of  fresh  achievements,  and,  in  due  course,  fresh  theories.  His 
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sound  judgment." — London  Academy. 

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rediscovering  evolution,  and  illustrating  its  relations  to  the  whole  field  of 
human  knowledge.  His  forcible  style  and  wealth  of  metaphor  make  all  that 
Mr.  Clodd  writes  arrestive  and  interesting." — London  Literary  World. 

11  Can  not  but  prove  welcome  to  fair-minded  men.  .  .  .  To  read  it  is  to 
have  an  object-lesson  in  the  meaning  of  evolution.  .  .  .  There  is  no  better 
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